When pruning your shrubs and small trees follow some basic rules

THE advantage of leaves parting company with their parent plant (especially in the case of deciduous shrubs) is that the frame and structure of the plant is revealed, writes TOM ATTWOOD. For some shrubs and small trees, it’s an opportune moment to give them a prune, particularly if they need reigning in. It’s true to say that for many plants pruning and creating wounds at this time of the year is less than ideal. The cuts created will not have a chance to heal effectively before the worst of the cold weather arrives. But in my experience if you’re dealing with vigorous mature shrubs such as laurel, ribes, euonymus, rhododendron and forsythia the damage inflicted is minimal so long as you follow some basic rules. If you’re cutting through woody stems of 20mm or more you’re beyond the capabilities of most secateurs; using a small fold-up pruning saw or set of loppers will leave you with a cleaner cut. What you want to avoid doing is ‘chewing’ and twisting the wood as you cut. The cleaner and tidier you can make the cut the better. Loppers are great but they can twist the wood. My preference has always been the smaller toothed pruning saw. With all pruning the cut wants to be made so that it sits just above a dormant bud as opposed to a cut being made directly through the bud. This will damage the emerging spring growth. If you’d like to be more precise then try to angle the cut you make so that the winter rain runs down the cut side away from the dormant bud, this can help avoid the bud rotting; this works well on roses. If you’re in any doubt as to how much you can actually remove then it’s worth doing some homework as every plant has a specific set of requirements. The ideal scenario is not to have to prune at all as some plants like acers are - on the whole - best left well alone but often through damage, disease or space it simply has to be done.