Pruning Time- Five Minute Friday

Welcome to a five-minute Friday video about pruning, and my point in this video is timing because we are here at the second week of May as I'm filming this, the end of the second week of May as we're filming this, and we're definitely on a clock for these things that we prune after flowering. If you're interested in having a list of shrubs, trees, vines, perennials on pruning timing, I have it on both the Learn to Garden video series and the Weekly Garden Planner. Both have those lists of the timing to prune things. So some things can be pruned in the wintertime because they bloom on new growth that next year, and some things need, if you prune them during the wintertime, you cost yourself the flowers. Like this azalea that's next to me, we would cost ourselves the flowers if we'd pruned it during the winter. But again, they're on both of those things which are available over on the website. Azaleas like this, especially this encore azalea here, are going to bloom multiple times a year. This is autumn lilac, and you can see the flowers that are just spent now. It has this really beautiful lavender color flower. It just completely covers up in flowers twice a year for us, spring and fall. This one has gotten a little bit wider, then I want to keep it in this spot. We're probably on the edge of almost having a little too much shade. On this one, these encore azaleas definitely like a little bit more sun, and it's up in some other things here. So I'll take the opportunity, I'm pruning for two reasons here. Number one, I'm just trying to get more flowers on it. So the more, when I make a cut in a spot like this on the stem, if you'll bring the camera over here still, when I make a cut here, azaleas are really good at having dormant buds along stems, when I make a cut here, I'm going to branch this thing potentially in three, four different places. And when that happens, each of those will form buds on the end for fall flowers. So I can actually increase the flowering by pruning. I can also size control it and take off kind of crazy limbs at the same time if the plant's in a spot that I need to size control it. You're not hurting the plant at all doing this. There are some plants in the world you don't want to be, you know, be pruning on like this, but azaleas are very receptive to pruning. But this one, again, it's got a couple of limbs that are just sticking out a little further than I'd like to have them, and I can cut pretty quickly. You can get in here on these plants and get super, super specific about where you're cutting them, but with some of these leafy evergreen plants like this, it just doesn't matter. I think one of the main things is I like to use my own tools, and I can clean my tools. I'm in charge of cleaning the tools. I don't want to, you know, I don't want to beat up on landscapers. This has nothing to do with landscapers, but if I take this tool and I go prune a diseased plant somewhere, and then I go prune seven other places today with that same tool without cleaning that tool, I have the potential to be spreading things around. So, of all the maintenance tasks you would do in your garden that you would personally do, this is the one, because you can have your own tools, you can keep your tools clean, you don't have to worry about rose rosette coming into your garden from a tool, or some other disease issue coming from a tool that's just going from, you know, from landscape job to landscape job, and let the landscapers do the rest of it, would be my opinion, but that's all I'm going to do on this thing. All I did was try to even the top out a bit and narrow it back in a bit. I've got this salvia growing next to it. We have a very full garden here. We have peony that was laying on it. I've got a red bud that's back here behind it, and I've got a couple perennials trying to pop up through it, and so now that I've got it size control, within a month it will have flushed back out and it'll start setting flower buds in mid-summer. So, the point of this video is the timing on these things, okay? This camellia that's behind it, this is another example of a timing related issue, this thing needs about four months to set these flower buds, okay? So, and fully leaf back out, foliage hardened, it hardened off a little bit, and then form new flower buds. This is a fall blooming camellia, and it doesn't have a whole lot, heck of a lot of time to grow, harden off, form flower buds, and those flowers open in August, you know, September, October, November, as the nighttime temperature's cool. So, I need to get this done now. So, this isn't just a prune after flowering, it's a prune after flowering pretty quickly, okay, to make sure it's done. All I'm going to do with this is some of these taller limbs that are on it, I'm just going to trace them down into the plant just a bit, just to take off some of the shaggy growth that's on the top of it, and then I'm actually going to narrow it in just a bit. And I know all of these five minute Friday videos are longer than five minutes, and Steph just told me we're a little over five, but I figure I'll show you at least two plants in this video, how I prune them before it's over with. And so, again, I've just kind of, you know, this is a weeping variety, October Magic Ruby, and it weeps down like this, but it will occasionally throw up these taller limbs. So, I'll take those again and put them down into the plant just a bit, and then I normally don't do any just kind of general pruning like this, but I'm going to with this because it's gotten wider than I want it, and it's laying on a couple other things going around. So, I'm just going to track it, you know, all the way around and narrow it in some, just like that. Not going to hurt it at all. In fact, every place where this thing creates some additional growth, you know, where it goes from that cut end to three new, for three new pieces, every one of those is going to have a flower bud on. So, I'm actually going to increase the amount of flowers on it, as long as the plant stays happy through the rest of the growing season, obviously. But, again, I don't do a lot of this kind of meatballing, but I'm just going around the outside to narrow this thing in some. It's gotten wider than I want to keep it, and I think that's about it. I think that's all I'm going to do on it. What do you think, Steph? A little bit better? Yeah, a little bit better. This is a fairly slow growing plant. It'll come back out five or six inches, set flower buds, bloom in October, November, and then sometime in the spring, again next year, I'll probably size control it just a little bit again. Not hurting the plant in any way. I'm increasing the amount of flowers I'm going to get. I'm allowing other things around it to be much happier than they would have been with this thing laying completely on top of it. I'm getting some air movement around it, so insect disease problems, rabbits can't hide in here as easily, all those kinds of things I'm hopefully helping with by size controlling the plant a little bit. But if you have any pruning to do, the sooner you do it, the better, because once we get into consistent mid-90 degree temperatures that we'll have here in Raleigh, when I'm taking this material off, I have the potential to burn the foliage underneath it, and the plant may not have enough time to fully leaf back out and harden off, protect itself for next winter, and set flower buds to flower again next year or maybe later this year in the case of these two. Thanks for watching.