Temper your Enthusiasm and Hold off on the Late Season Pruning!

Stunning leaves… just around the corner!

The crisp nights and cooler days have arrived- a sure sign that fall is around the corner. Fall is generally a time of yard work and many people become very enthusiastic to tackle outdoor chores- even people with no interest in their yard whatsoever throughout the rest of the year tend to catch the ‘gardening bug’ during the autumn months. Often this enthusiasm is directed at whacking back various trees and shrubs in their yard. While there is certainly lots to do before the snow flies, pruning is the one task that we want to minimize at this time of year. (Sorry Edward Scissorhands wannabes!)

Let’s start with the effect that pruning has on a tree or shrub… it promotes new growth. New growth is tender and needs time to toughen up to the environmental conditions around it. At this time of year, our frosty mornings are just around the corner. If we prune now, new growth that emerges will not have the time to properly harden off before the cold weather hits, which can ultimately lead to death of the new plant tissue… therefore you will get dieback. On deciduous trees and shrubs (ones that lose their leaves for the winter), this dieback would be apparent in the spring; on evergreens it could become obvious during the fall and winter months. Dead new growth is not the nicest thing to look at on a plant that is supposed to stay green for the winter!

Furthermore, plants are using this time to start shutting themselves down for the winter. They are gathering sugars and carbohydrates from their leaves and storing them in their stems, trunks and root systems; valuable energy to help the plant survive the winter and flush out new growth in the spring. Removing the leaves before they fall doesn’t allow the plant to relocate these sugars to their ‘winter storage facilities’ and therefore the plant is robbed of it’s energy sources for the months ahead. Additionally, the stimulation of new growth through pruning counters what the plant is trying to do. Instead of putting energy towards properly ‘shutting down’ it is putting energy towards new growth; this can weaken the plant going into the winter.

While it is true that plants can rebound from a late season prune, it is not an ideal time for this gardening task.

So… if you feel the call of the pruning saw, hedge shear or lopper- ignore it! Opt to warm up some apple cider, mosey through the garden, and start your ‘to do list’ for next year. Those shrubs and trees that you are just dying to hack back now will still be there in the spring and they can be first on your ‘hit list’ for a dormant season prune come a mild day in March***! Not to mention, with all that energy [properly] saved-up for a spring flush, the plant will be able to quickly rebound from your ‘haircut’.

Can you hear that?

That is the sound of your shrubs and trees breathing a huge sigh of relief.

***While any plant can be pruned in the dormant season, it is important to note that if you prune anything that flowers early in the growing season, you would most likely be removing flower buds. For these plants it means that a hard prune = no flowers for the upcoming growing season. While some people may gasp in horror at the thought of this, sometimes it is a necessary evil in order to renovate an overgrown shrub. More on pruning and timing of pruning in future posts… I promise!