How to Prune Shrubs and Bushes

Welcome back guys, it's the Tightwad and today I'm going to show you how to trim your shrubs, in this particular case loropedlums, into round shaped shrubs. I've already trimmed or pruned these four and I have two more to do. So I'm going to show you how to go from this wild haired loropedlum to this nice and groomed round balls. The tool I'm using today are these Black & Decker electric hedge trimmers. While I can't say that Black & Decker is a top brand, these have served me well. They have a 22 inch blade on them, which would be the minimum I would recommend for trimming large shrubs. These are electric so it takes an extension cord to run them, which is not ideal. You have to always be aware of where your extension cord is while you're pruning. But like I said, I've had these for a while, I think about six years now, and I've trimmed my shrubs four or five times a year and they've never failed me. I have cut two extension cords because I wasn't aware of where my cord was at all times. But I'm going to show you today how to trim your loropedlum shrubs. You'll notice when trimming I like to start with the top of the shrub. I cut down until I find the natural ball that is formed under the long hairs that are sticking out. Then I slowly work my way down the sides. I'll always trim from top to bottom or side to side. On these particular shrubs the shoots tend to grow in an upward motion, so pruning them from the bottom means you're going to leave extra little sticks hanging out as you trim. Notice I trim the front first and then I go down in a rounding motion from the top to the bottom. Then I make sure that I trim off the small pieces at the very bottom of the shrub against the mulch. I do not use drop cloths because I want to be able to trim all the way down to the mulch. I simply clean it up after I'm done. Once I've knocked off the major foliage I come back and do the fine pruning. A lot of times I end up with a ridge between the top of the bush and the side of the bush. So I like to go back and start at the top and do a gradual slope from the top down towards the side and then curve it into the bottom of the bush. Always try to use long smooth sloping motions when you're attempting to prune a bush into a round shape as I have with these loropedlums. The next step in the process is to prune the back side of your trees. I planted these loropedlums myself so I did space them properly away from the wall. A lot of contractors place bushes way too close to the wall causing the plant to rub against the wall which can damage the brick or whatever type siding you have on your house. My recommendation is to take the maximum circumference of the bush which is usually labeled in the width on the plant tag when you first purchase it. So take the maximum width, divide it by two, and space it that far from the wall plus an extra foot. If you leave an extra foot then you'll always have room to prune the back side and it will not rub against the side of your house. Notice from this angle you can't tell that they're spaced out from the house but when you get up close you can. So visually they still look great. I'll show you my other row up here. You see my loropedlum has purple leaves and that symbolizes the new growth on mine and I typically cut it all the way back where there are no more purple leaves. This is where the foundation of the ball of my plant lies. Make sure you don't cut too far down or you'll end up with large holes. Here's a small hole here but that's barely noticeable from five or six feet away. I hope you found this video helpful. If you did, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. If you want to see a video showing how to install pine straw like a professional, click the video in the top left. Ignore my bad looking pine straw in this video because it's time to apply more. If you want to see a video showing the proper way to prune crape myrtle trees, if you like the groomed look, click the video in the top right. I hope you guys have a great day.