Fruit Tree Pruning Starts With Where the Crop Forms
A crowded fruit tree looks productive and gives you small, damaged fruit on branches that snap in storms. Two things turn that around…
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How Deep Can You Cut a Spent Lavender Spike?
Deadheading lavender is the lightest cut you will ever make on the plant, and the one place people still manage to kill it. The whole…
How to Cut Lavender for Bouquets, Drying, and Sachets
Cutting lavender to use is a different job from pruning it, and the payoff is decided almost entirely by when you cut. Harvest at the…
How to Tell a Marigold Bud From a Spent Flower
The tricky part of deadheading marigolds is not the cut, it is telling a spent head from a fat new bud, because on a marigold they…
Pruning Flowering Shrubs: Old Wood or New Wood?
A shrub loaded with flowers one year and bare the next was almost always pruned at the wrong time. The fix is not a better tool or a…
Plant response
Three decisions that shape the result
The plant and its bloom cycle determine where and when to cut.
1
Name the objective
Remove a hazard, improve structure, or renew growth with a clear reason for each cut.
2
Confirm the timing
Check whether the plant flowers on old wood, new wood, or both.
3
Inspect after the cut
Watch bud growth and branch balance before scheduling more pruning.
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