Dormant Pruning?  What is dormant pruning?  The practice of dormant pruning is exactly what the name implies.  It is the pruning of decidous trees and shrubs while they are still dormant in the winter.  There are many advantages to pruning your trees and shrubs while they are dormant.  Pruning in late winter will allow your plants to grow more vigorously in the spring.  Dormant pruning reduces the amount of buds on the plant allowing more stored energy in the root system to be directed to the remaing buds when growth stars again in spring.  Pruning trees and shrubs in late winter allows fresh pruning wounds exposed for a short time before a new growth cycle occures.  Trees and shrubs have the most stored food in their root system in the winter, so this stored energy can be used to properly heal your pruning cuts and fight off infections.  The dormant pruning cuts also are hidden quickly by the sudden growth of vegetation in spring.

Dormant pruning can be safely used for just about every deciduous tree and shrub.  Just remember, the branches that are removed during dormant pruning will not flower on spring blooming plants, such as lilacs, forsythia, and spring blooming viburnums, which set their flowering buds on the previous year's growth.  If you can deal with a few of these trees and shrubs flowering less in spring, this is a wonderful time to get your trees and shrubs back to a manageable size and you will be plesently surprised by the amount of flowers generated in the following spring.

Contact American Landscape to schedule dormant pruning today!