Pruning your ornamental and productive plants is a great way to shape them into the look you want, maintain vigour and removing disease. This can be done at many points in a plant’s life and using the right tools is a must. Whatever you are pruning you are aiming for clean cuts, when you have a rough cut or tear on a plant you are increasing the surface area of the plant that is open to the air and thus making it more susceptible to infection from pests and pathogens.
For hedges and topiary of all sizes a pair of sharp hedging shears will give you the flexibility to cut straight lines and follow curves. If pruning something with a small leaf such as Buxus (Box) try to keep the blades wet by repeatedly dunking them in a bucket of water as this will ensure the leaf does not tear and will give a clean cut.
For larger hedges powered hedging shears will speed up the whole process, and there are grades of quality which normally come with an increase of price range. Don’t necessarily go for the cheapest or most expensive, talk to your local dealer to ascertain the best quality and price range for work the tool will do over its lifetime. I like battery powered hedging tools as they are lighter and quieter than their petrol-powered counterparts and I find them easier to use for longer periods of time. There are also long handled versions available for taller hedges – just ensure you are comfortable to be holding the shears when fully extended and if not consider contracting this job out to a professional with experience.
For smaller formative pruning jobs, you will need a pair of secateurs, these cut anything under the thickness of your little finger. You want something with a by-pass action as an anvil action will crush the plant and is only for dead wood. For medium pruning jobs anything up to 50mm in diameter you need loppers – these are like large secateurs with long handles. Anything bigger and you will need a pruning saw.
Secateurs can be used for dead heading flowers and tip pruning to promote dense growth but don’t use them like shears randomly cutting at foliage, you need to locate a bud on the stem of the plant you are working on and prune just above this. The remaining bud will then swell and burst into life as a new shoot. If you cut too high the stem above the last bud on the plant will die back and the plant will be more suspectable to pests and diseases. Lots of plants, such as roses and fruit trees, like to be pruned to an outward facing bud so when it grows it forms a vase shape with good air flow and circulation in the centre of the plants canopy.
When using loppers, you are normally working on medium sized shrubs and small trees removing dying and diseased parts and trying to maintain a nice shape. To do this prune back to a fork in the stem to give a more natural appearance.
When removing larger branches and using a pruning saw its best to use a pull saw – one that only cuts when pulled towards you as its much safer than using a carpentry saw that cuts in both directions. When cutting a branch follow a three-step cut rule. First around 200mm away from your final cut, cut upwards to the sky and stop just before the branch gets too heavy and pinches on the saw. Then the second cut goes 50mm further away from the final cut but on top of the branch. The weight of the branch will tear the branch down to the first cut you made leaving a step in the branch, the last and final cut is closer to the tree.
When making the final cut there is a section on the plant known as ‘the collar’ it is wrinkles around the base of a branch that looks a little like a turtleneck sweater. It’s important to leave this on the plant as it contains all the hormones the plant needs to fend off pathogens that will try to get into the fresh cut. Without the weight of the whole branch puling on the branch you should be able to get one clean cut.
Whatever tool you use clean it after every use, and get into the habit of doing so, that way it doesn’t feel like a chore more part of the process. Cleaning can be done with a quick spray down of alcohol and water to disinfect and this will prevent diseases from spreading between your plants as well as removing any sap and gunk prolonging the lifespan of your tools – look after them and they will look after your garden.
