Boxwood Pruning in March 2009

5March2009
A few notes on Boxwood pruning as we move into the growing season. Boxwood will grow fast this month. I never recommend shearing, though there is a place for it. The formal English/European Boxwood garden have both hand pruned and sheared hedges.

Personally, I don't like the sheared look because of the damage caused to the leaves, and the grayish cut edges later. After a while, the edges will look hazy, which is not the best look for the shrub or hedge. So I recommend hand pruning.

It isn't hard to hand prune, with a little knowledge, and a lot of patience. The time needed to properly prune boxwood usually detour landscapers from cutting by hand, but the benefits are great. The size of the hedge of shrub is maintained easier by hand pruning, and dead wood is minimal. The plant lives longer, has less die out, stays more natural looking, has inner growth, and doesn't have the haze caused by shearing.

Deep cuts are needed to space out growth maintaining a natural appearance and the overall affect is beautiful.

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Boxwood Pruning from a February Blog post

Tis the time to prune boxwood. We are also starting to prune many other plants for the winter season. Roses, Vitex (Chaste Tree), butterfly bushes, are all started in Mid to Late Winter to avoid promoting early growth in the winter.

We have almost wrapped up Crape Myrtle pruning though some will need proper pruning even into March. We like to prune Crape Myrtles either in a natural style where we tip the top and thin the interior, or in some cases we will shape them more if so needed by a customer for a specific reason. Discussion is needed to decide which method is best for the landscape. We never perform Crape murder, as was coined by Southern Living mag. years back. In many cases, we only thin the tree to keep it growing properly, and the top is left natural and untrimmed.

Proper trimming of boxwood is time consuming, but the time pays off as the plants fill in from the inside later in the spring. Beautiful mounds of Boxwood are around many Atlanta homes. Some have been sheared by power tools or pruned improperly with hand pruners by landscapers who only know how to keep the plant round in shape. Few prune properly, hence we are here to help you keep you boxwood healthy and growing at the size you prefer.

Leafminer have been heavy this year and last spring as well. Pruning by hand will remove many of the larvae in the end branches, but some spray may be needed by either organic or chemical means. In either case, control the leaf minor now in February before more damage occurs to the leaf. Eggs will be laid soon which will populate the plant next winter and start the process over once again.

I have created a newsletter which is available here in this website for Precision Pruning.

For information:
http://www.precisionpruning.com

and/or newsletter:
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Precision.Pruning.770-452-7121