Spring And Summer Hard Pruning

Published on: April 10th, 2019

Spring and summer hard pruning. How important is it? What does it do to your landscape?

Trimming or hard pruning. The regular routine plant and shrub trimming is done throughout the year. This can be done at all times of year in South Florida but hard pruning is cutting back up to 1/3 to even 3/4 of a plant material and this should only be done in summer months. It is not recommended to do hard pruning in the cooler months. During the cooler months we go into a slower plant growing season. So it will take much longer for the new growth to grow in compared to if you did the hard pruning in the summer which is considered the growing season in South Florida. We will do this 2 – 3 times per year throughout Spring and Summer. We do a very hard pruning once in end of spring or beginning of summer and then it will need to be done a couple more times throughout the growing period.

Cutting back flowering plants and trees is very beneficial. The reason being is that when you are hard pruning you will be promoting new healthy growth and along with that growth will come more blooms and more flowers. After a hard pruning we will always do a treatment to prevent any diseases or bugs from attacking the plant while it is growing in. Along with that treatment we will feed everything to make sure all your plant material is healthy. This is a very important step and sometimes when not done bugs or diseases will then attack the plants new growth which we do not want.

Cutbacks are key to a healthy and aesthetically looking landscape. We also will do cutbacks or hard pruning to get back the hard shape of the plant or tree from 12 months of the growing season. Over the 12 months or so that everything is actively growing and constantly being trimmed, sometimes you will lose the shape of that plant or tree. We cut it back to the shape and size we need it to be to allow more room for the new growth so it can grow into the right shape and size we want it. During this process we will also cut out any deadwood or diseases limbs that serves no purpose, hurting the tree or just looks awful.

Certain plants and trees will need more of a cutback compared to others. Some plants are just faster growing, so therefore we can cutback much more and create a lot more new growth. One example is Bougainvilleas. Bougainvilleas are very fast growing and we can cut back 3/4 of the plant or tree if needed, due to how fast it grows. The benefits of hard pruning is very beneficial and should always be done at-least once per year.

Call, text or email us today for any of Hard Pruning needs and we will be happy to help. 561-542-9689 – Info@haiglandscape.com