Most of us know that the best time to prune deciduous plants is during dormancy but near spring, a period often referred to as late winter/early spring. What about April? In some places (like my hometown in central Alaska), April is spring, generally the first snow-free month of the new year. And in most USDA hardiness zones, April is not too late to prune some shrubs.
So let’s go to the basics of pruning: Spring pruning helps landscape plants prepare for a vigorous growing season ahead. Pruning is a good garden habit, helping to keep plants healthy and vigorous, as well as controlling the size and structure of garden friends.
Which ones can be pruned in April? Here are eight that are still good to start.
Pruning Tips
First, let’s go over some pruning basics. While some plants have specific, unique needs, these guidelines are a good general plan for all pruning and pruning:
- Use clean, sharp pruning shears or shears each time you prune. Our team of gardening experts recommends these bypass pruners from Felco, available on Amazon, for clean and easy cuts. Dull or dirty tools can damage branches and cause disease. Keep your pruning shears sharp with a Corona sharpener, also available from Amazon.
- Remove damaged or diseased branches first. You can actually remove them any time of the year.
- Remove the mocks.
- Once they are damaged, the branches and snot are gone, you can do most of the pruning. Remove no more than a quarter to a third of the plant. Prune for shape and size to eliminate crossing branches and let more light inside the plant.
- Make cuts at a 45 degree angle and just above the nodes. If you cut at an outward facing node, the new growth will also face outwards. Cut to inward-facing nodes for more inward growth.
Basic pruning tools
These branches easily cut thick branches in trees and bushes.
WORKPRO
Cordless brush cutter
This easy-to-use handheld hedge trimmer makes clearing brush a breeze.
1. Butterfly Bush
(Image: Mark Carthy/Shutterstock)
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Botanical name |
Buddleia Davidi |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 5-10 |
Most gardeners love butterflies, and these happy flyers love butterfly bushes. So it is natural to plant them in our gardens. They are always described as beings aggressive growersbut still, it turns your head to see how fast they expand. This means that pruning is necessary to keep plants shapely, healthy and vibrant.
April is the ideal month for trim your butterfly bushes. The last frosts are mostly in the rearview mirror and new growth is about to begin. Pruning now means that the flowers that appear in summer will be strong and healthy and that their numbers will be numerous.
How to prune? Remove the top part of the plant, reducing it significantly in size. You can take off up to half the height and maintain a strong, vigorous bush. Of course, during this pruning any dead or damaged branches should also be removed.
2. American Beautyberry
(Image: Elena Chevalier/Shutterstock)
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Botanical name |
American Callicarpa |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 6-10 |
American beautyberry is an excellent landscape shrub, with its bright purple berries brightening the garden in fall and winter. The same berries that give the plant its common name make it attractive to the area’s wild birds. It is a low maintenance shrub that grows very quickly and annual pruning is essential.
Beautyberry pruning keeps the bush looking its best. incredibly fast growth can get messy. Pruning in April encourages the growth of new shoots that will bear the blooms and fruits of the season.
As always, pruning begins with cutting off dead, damaged or diseased branches. But then, take it further. Remove about one-third of the length of flowering stems, making the cut just above a healthy set of buds. Prune some of the older stems as well to keep the bush young and vigorous.
3. Flowering Quince
(Image credit: Alamy)
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Botanical name |
Beautiful honey mellows |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 6-10 |
Flowering quince is a deciduous shrub that offers a dazzling display of beautiful flowers. The flowers, in brilliant shades of red, pink and white, appear in early spring, brightening up the garden at an otherwise less colorful time of year.
Flowering quince must be pruned immediately after flowering. Most of the time, this means April, although the time depends on your climate. Since flowering quince blooms on wood produced the previous season, pruning immediately after flowering helps maintain these flower crops. Pull on heavy gardening gloves to keep the thorny stems from piercing you, then prune away the usual suspects: dead, damaged or diseased stems, as well as crossed branches. A couple heavy duty gardening gloves, available from Amazon, it will keep your hands and forearms protected from thorns and thistles while you prune.
Flowering spurs should be pruned back to a few buds from the base. If the bush is overgrown, revive it removing some of the older branches.
4. Winterberry
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
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Botanical name |
Ilex verticillata |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 3-9 |
Not all types of holly bloom in time for the holidays, however winter – a solid holly – does. This native plant bears fruit quite early, yet the branches are laden with deep green leaves and red berries right through to spring.
These berries develop from flowers that develop on the new growth of the berry bush. That’s why it’s important to prune and shape the bush in early spring before new growth begins. April might be the perfect time.
You have two main tasks when pruning. First, berry bushes shoot up quickly and need shaping to keep them attractive. Generally this can be light pruning to keep the shape tidy. If the holly is overgrown, you can remove the older branches each year, removing no more than one-third of the branches. But secondly, the berry produces so many buds that they can get out of control if not cut back often.
5. Vines
(Image credit: Pollyana Ventura/Getty Images)
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Botanical name |
Wine vine |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 5-9 |
My friend in France has vines she covers her vineyard and, in the summer, the grapes hang from the slats creating a completely charming atmosphere. But while grapes are easy to eat, vines require effort. There is no way to avoid pruning the vines if you want a heavy crop next year.
Pruning vines it is always completed during the idle period and April is one of the peak months. That’s because warm weather is just around the corner. If you leave the vines to their own devices, they may put all their energy into growing taller, instead of producing fruit. The first step is the same as with other plants: remove diseased, dead or damaged wood. After that, cut back the previous year’s growth, leaving only a few buds – strong, healthy – on each cane.
6. American Smoke Tree
(Image: Oleg Tsarev/Shutterstock)
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Botanical name |
Constantly ovulating |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 5-9 |
No one who has seen one American tobacco tree he will ask how he got his name. In summer, it develops a full canopy of leaves covered in a mist of tiny, pale purple flowers. Yes, it looks like the burning bush! The foliage comes in a variety of colors and tobacco trees can be grown as a shrub or small tree.
Smoke trees are quite self-sufficient in the landscape, but you will want to do some pruning to keep the plant in nice shape and maintain a compact form. April is a good month to deal with pruning since the bush is about to come out of dormancy. Pruning smoke trees should include removing dead or damaged branches, reducing the size of older stems even to ground level, and shaping the remaining growth.
7. Panic hydrangea
(Image: Galina Zhigalova/Getty Images)
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Botanical name |
Hydrangea paniculata |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 3-8 |
When it comes to your hydrangeas, one of the most important things to know about them is whether they are flowering on old wood or new wood. This is critical when it comes to pruning. Panic hydrangeas bloom on new wood – their showy cone-shaped flower clusters appear in summer and last until autumn.
The best time for prune panic hydrangeas it is in the spring, after the last frost of the season but before new growth appears. April pruning works well, encouraging vigorous branching and generous flowering in summer. Simply cut back the previous year’s growth to a pair of strong buds, reducing the height to half its height. The new vegetation that grows there will support the summer blooms.
8. Shrubby dogleaf
(Image: Valeriy Lushchikov/Getty Images)
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Botanical name |
Potentilla fruticosa |
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USDA zones |
USDA zones 2-8 |
Shrubby five leaf are among the most popular landscape shrubs. This native shrub it is hardy, tolerant, carefree and seems to bloom forever. It is not afraid of drought, salty air or urban pollution and tolerates all weather except hot and humid.
The bushy finish doesn’t require much to thrive. It grows in poor soils and can survive extreme weather conditions – yes, it blooms all summer long in Alaska! Yellow canaries, five-petalled flowers, each no larger than an inch in diameter, add color and cheer to the garden. It is an important one food source for pollinators. The leaves are also lovely, each compound leaf consists of 5 small leaflets arranged like fingers on a hand.
Does the bushy finish need pruning? Generally, not much. Even minimal pruning is usually enough to tidy up its compact form. April is a good month to prune this shrub, removing dead, damaged and crossing branches. If your tendril is overgrown, you can prune more heavily to control the size.
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