For Health – Spring Pruning

Many garden owners avoid pruning in the spring because they are afraid of harming the plant or simply don't know how to prune. However, pruning is very important for many plants to grow healthy.

Generally, spring and autumn are considered ideal times for pruning. Whether it's just a few shoots or a radical cut – the timing and the approach are crucial. But pruning is much easier than many people think.

Even if pruning is done in spring, spring is not the same throughout. Especially in the months before the Ice Saints in May, late frosts can still occur, which can severely damage plants if they have just been pruned. Therefore, it is particularly important to wait until temperatures reliably stay above freezing. If the cut surfaces do not have enough time to close, frost can penetrate the plant unhindered and, in the worst case, cause it to die. A good indicator is the Forsythia. When the Forsythia blooms, no more frosts are generally expected. Unfortunately, there is no exact cut-off date for pruning. Even in May, it can still freeze at night.

The most well-known candidates for spring pruning are probably roses. However, it depends on whether the roses bloom once or multiple times a year. Roses that bloom only once a year flower on the shoots from the previous year. If these shoots were cut off, the rose would have few to no flowers at the time of blooming. Roses that bloom several times a year are cut approximately 5 millimeters above an outward-facing bud. But not only roses need pruning in the spring to stay healthy. To ensure fruit trees yield more fruit and grow more vigorously, summer-flowering fruit trees also need pruning. Shrubs that bloom from late summer to winter are also pruned in the spring. Furthermore, spring pruning is a good opportunity to remove frost damage from plants and to cut back severely damaged plants completely.

There isn't a precise set of rules for pruning in general. Where, how much, and when pruning is done always depends on the specific needs of the plants. These can vary from species to species. Even within the genus of roses, there are countless differences in pruning. Therefore, it is advisable to get information directly from specialist retailers when purchasing, regarding whether, when, and how pruning should be carried out. However, the general rule is: prune strong shoots only lightly and weak shoots very vigorously. Because the more severe the pruning, the more new shoots the plant will form, and the healthier and more lushly it will grow.