If your plants flower from July - October and are deciduous.

Pruning: Controls plant size and shape. Keeps shrubby evergreens well-proportioned and dense. Removes unwanted branches, waterspouts, suckers and undesirable fruiting structures that detract from plant appearance. Prune to protect people and property. Remove. A properly pruned shrub is a work of art and beauty and does not look as if it has been pruned.

Pruning cuts should be hidden inside the plant where they will be covered by remaining leaves. The first step in pruning a shrub is to remove all dead, diseased or injured branches. May 24, Pruning actually stimulates growth. Pruning and thinning shrubs reduces disease pressure (examples - Macrophoma and Volutella leaf spot of boxwood and black spot of roses) by increasing air circulation and allowing foliage to dry faster.

Old overgrown shrubs can be renewal pruned to improve their appearance and reduce their size. Shaping is another reason for pruning shrubs.

Remove vigorous vertical branches, called watersprouts.

Shape can be managed to some degree by pruning to side buds or branches growing in the desired direction. While pruning has some control over size, it is not an effective method to keep a large shrub in a small space. Where shrubs have overgrown their space, consider replacing the plants with smaller cultivars or other species. [Figures4 and 5].

Shrubs that bloom on new growth may be pruned in spring before growth begins.

When pruning shrubs, always make your cuts just above a bud. For plants with buds arranged alternately (with one bud higher on one side than the other), make sloping cuts angled up from the bud. For plants with buds arranged directly opposite from one another, make a flat cut at a right angle to the stem just above a pair of shrubmulching.barted Reading Time: 9 mins.

Aug 05, For these shrubs, some experts recommend a very severe form of pruning, known as rejuvenation pruning. This involves cutting the entire shrub off at a level just six to 12 inches above the ground. The shrub will be little more than an unattractive clump of stems for a short while, but it quickly restores itself to a new, improved shrubmulching.barted Reading Time: 6 mins.