Blooming Shrubs

During the spring it is important to remember when to prune your blooming shrubs.  Many shrubs bloom on new growth.  A good rule of green thumb is not to prune your blooming shrubs until they have bloomed.  Then prune them.  If you forget to prune right after the blooming period, do not panic and prune in the winter.  You will lose all those beautiful blooms during the spring, and you can always prune the next spring after the shrub blooms.

Also, I have noticed a trend to cut Crepe Myrtle all the way back to the old stalks and trunks.  This is not really healthy for this shrub.  You can still get the tree effect by pruning individual branches rather than cutting all the new growth off.  Eventually a stubby end is produced and the shrub looks bad.  The stubby growth is the shrub's efforts to "heal" the cut.  Pruning individual branches does not cause this stubby growth which is quite ugly.

Roses

Roses need to be pruned so blooms are abundant.  The expression "dead head" means to clip off the dead bloom.  This is a type of pruning.  There is another pruning method that involves actually cutting back the rose to about eight inches in height.  This should be done at the end of season usually late fall. By doing this, the rose will become dormant and survive the winter. Cut each major stem of the rose back to the mentioned eight inches in length. In spring the old stems will grow new ones and your roses will bloom more profusely.  Your rose bush will be beautiful all summer.