Spring Flowering Shrubs – Now and Then

One of the true joys of the well-balanced, diversified landscape are the spring flowering and summer flowering shrubs.  Now is the time when we can enjoy the spring flowering shrubs such as  dogwood, viburnum, lilac, cotoneaster and forsythia.  The good part is that there are many cultivars or varieties of these spring blooming species to explore and consider for the landscape.

These plants will continue to be assets as long as they are well placed and pruned correctly.  What does it mean to prune them correctly?  This is best defined as what NOT to do – and that’s shearing.  This is best illustrated by the photo shown below.  This depicts dead growth, a wide, unwieldy top and crowded and thin stems at the base.

Instead of shearing, the key to success is thinning, removing stems at the base of the plant, as shown in the other photos.  So, plan to prune – mark it on your calendar to prune them when the finish blooming and you’ll have great shrubs for many years to come.