Pruning and Plant Shaping

Pruning and plant shaping are essential garden tasks that go far beyond simple aesthetics. At its core, pruning is about maintaining plant health, encouraging new growth, and managing a plant’s size and form. By strategically removing dead, diseased, or crossing branches, you improve air circulation, which helps prevent fungal issues. This process also stimulates the plant to produce fresh growth, leading to more abundant flowers, healthier fruit, and a more vigorous, well-structured plant. A good pruning session can rejuvenate an overgrown shrub and ensure it directs its energy into productive, healthy limbs rather than wasteful or weak ones.

Effective pruning relies on using the right tools and techniques. Always use clean, sharp tools like secateurs for smaller stems and loppers or a pruning saw for thicker branches to ensure a clean cut that heals quickly. The most common technique is to cut a stem about 6mm above a healthy bud, angling the cut at 45 degrees away from the bud. This angle prevents water from sitting on the wound and encourages the new shoot to grow outwards, away from the centre of the plant. Simple practices like deadheading, or removing spent flowers, are a form of light pruning that can trick a plant into producing more blooms throughout the season.

The timing of your pruning is crucial and depends heavily on the plant type. For many deciduous trees and summer-flowering shrubs, the ideal time to prune is in late winter or early spring—like right now in Sydney—while the plant is dormant or just beginning to wake up. This allows the plant to put all its spring energy into healing and producing new growth in the desired shape. However, plants that flower in spring on the previous year’s growth (like hydrangeas, magnolias, or azaleas) should only be pruned immediately after they finish flowering, otherwise, you risk cutting off this season’s buds and sacrificing the floral display.