Do you really need to prune your plants in Spring?

Whatever the weather is doing these days, Spring is on the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere. Your plants are waking up from their winter hiatus and in a few weeks small buds should appear to bloom in your home and outdoors. This means you have little time to lose preparing your garden!

What needs to be done? We transplant the plants that seem to need more space, we give them fertilizer (liquid or solid) to boost their energy, we water them, and we move our indoor plants to a bright room while we avoid putting them in full sun. Spring is also an opportunity to remove dead leaves and stems from your plants, giving them a little haircut.

It's important to prune your plants, both indoors and outdoors, to keep them healthy. By removing dead or diseased parts, you don't just air your plants but also make sure that light enters them and new shoots take shape.

To properly prune your shrubs and plants, you will need the right tools. Equip yourself with pruning shears (obviously essential), but also with other shears, a hedge cutter if necessary, a branch cutter for tall trees, and, of course, gloves and a clear head!

Beware, it is not recommended to prune all your plants and shrubs in early spring! On the contrary, some varieties, such as spring-flowering plants, should absolutely not be pruned at this time of year in order to flower properly.

An example of such a plant is lilac. It is necessary to wait about 2 months after the end of the flowering of the lilac to prune its branches. June is often the best time.

There is no need to prune Japanese maple every year. Instead, do it once every four years or so. The best month to do it is November, before the sap rises.

Photo: Bbb xzh / Unsplash

The hydrangea is never pruned in the spring. However, it requires a small cut during the fall and at the end of winter.

The deutzia has flowers at the end of spring, so it will be necessary to wait until the end of its flowering to prune its branches and see the buds reappear the following year. It is therefore generally necessary to prune this plant in July.

There is no need to prune the tamarisk in the spring. Nevertheless, you can do this once every three years, once it has finished flowering completely.

Spring spirea bloom at the very beginning of spring. It is therefore obviously not necessary to prune them at this time, but rather at the end of their flowering, a few months later.

It is important not to prune forsythia in early spring. We advise you to do it at the end of its flowering, in May.

In order to respect the biodiversity of your garden (and in particular the birds in full nesting), it is not recommended to cut your hedges between March 15 and July 31. If you need to trim your hedges, you'll have to wait until late summer. The end of winter is also a good time to tackle the task.

Hawthorn should be pruned around October. If fruits are still clinging to the shrub, you can wait until December to take action.

It is not necessary to prune cotinus. However, if you wish to prune it, you can do so at the end of winter, in February.

For your peonies to be flamboyant in the spring, consider giving them a refreshing cut in the fall.

You will need to wait until the end of oleander bloom, i.e., late summer, to prune your shrub. If temperatures remain mild until October, you can wait until early fall to get out the pruning shears.

Another shrub not to be pruned in the spring: boxwood! It is generally pruned at the end of summer, in August, or before the beginning of spring, in February.