Shrub Pruning Techniques for Your Landscape

commercial planting in a New Hampshire city park

Maintaining healthy and visually appealing shrubs in your landscape involves more than just occasional trimming. Understanding different shrub pruning techniques – shearing, hand pruning, and restoration pruning – can significantly impact the health and aesthetic of your landscape shrubs.

Shearing

Shearing is a pruning technique used to maintain a formal appearance for shrubs. It involves trimming the outer layer of growth to create a uniform shape.

Advantages of Shearing Shrubs

> Cost-effective
> Formal look
> Maintain a specific size and shape
> Does not require horticultural skills

Disadvantages of Shearing Shrubs

> Dense outer growth/dead interior
> Plant loses its natural shape
> Must trim every year due to flush of growth
> Can cut off all flower buds if done too late

Hand-Pruning

Hand pruning offers a more precise approach to shaping shrubs. It involves selectively cutting individual branches to maintain or enhance the natural form of the shrub.

Advantages of Hand-Pruning Landscape Shrubs

> Maintain plant’s natural look
> More control over shape/size
> Promotes healthy growth and flowering
> Better air circulation prevents spread of disease and insects

Disadvantages of Hand-Pruning Landscape Shrubs

> Time consuming / costs more
> Requires horticultural skill / training
> Not suitable for some types of shrubs
> Risk of spreading diseases from plant to plant

Restoration Pruning

Restoration pruning is essential for landscape shrubs that have been neglected or overgrown to rejuvenate their health and appearance. This technique involves more drastic pruning to reduce the height or spread of a shrub.

Advantages of Restoration Pruning

> Saves the cost of replacement
> Stimulates new growth lower in the plant
> Can improve flowering
> Can ultimately maintain plant at desired height

Disadvantages of Restoration Pruning

> Can shock, stress or even kill some plants
> Plant looks sparse until new growth fills in
> Can only be done at certain times of the year
> Requires some level of horticultural knowledge

Shrub Pruning Services from Groundhog Landscaping

As one of the largest full service residential and commercial landscape maintenance companies in southern New Hampshire, our crews are busy every day keeping all of our clients’ properties neat and tidy.

Pruning Services for Commercial Properties

For budgetary reasons, pruning services for commercial properties typically involve shearing and are rolled into a comprehensive landscape maintenance package that we have created for each client. Groundhog Landscaping has a designated maintenance crew that is trained for shrub pruning, brush removal and woods line clearing. If there are overgrown shrubs that detract from the value of the property, our estimator may recommend supplementing the maintenance contract with Landscape Enhancement Services to replace them.

Pruning Services for Residential Landscapes

Pruning services for residential landscapes tend to be a bit more diversified. Some homeowners have opted for seasonal landscape maintenance services that include mowing, mulching and fall cleanups. With these packages comes an option to have the shrub pruning crew at Groundhog Landscaping selectively shear some of the landscape plants to keep them neat.

Some of our residential customers prefer to either trim their shrubs themselves or hire Groundhog Turf Care’s Plant Health Care program that may include spraying, deep root fertilizing and selective hand pruning of their landscape trees and shrubs.