Blazing Heat Calls For Careful Pruning

From The Fresno Bee, July 1, 2010, by Elinor Teague:

When daytime temperatures regularly exceed 95 degrees, most flowering plants stop producing new blossoms.

Hedge plants such as wax-flower privet, boxwood, xylosma and Carolina cherry are exceptions, though. These plants grow vigorously in summer and can become overgrown. Don't put off shearing back hedges until the weather cools, though. It's best to shear rapidly growing hedges lightly every few weeks in summer to maintain a good shape. When overgrown hedges are cut back heavily, the inner wood and branches can suffer sun burn damage and the tender new inner leaves that are exposed can burn.

There is an art to properly shaping hedges, and it takes practice--and sometimes the use of a string line--to get it right. Hedges should be a little wider at the bottom than at the top. A wider top will shade out the bottom branches causing them to die back. Using string lines as cutting guides will both maintain an even shape and keep the bottom branches as healthy and productive as the top ones.

It is a common practice for some gardeners to shear many ornamental landscape plants into topiary shapes or to try to control plant growth direction. Some plants such as shrub or columnar junipers, evergreen euonymous and rhaphiolepsis will look fine for years when sheared lightly every few months during the growing season.

But when gardeners attempt to change the natural shapes of azalea and camellia bushes or turn the arching branches of loropetalum into balls, it creates a mess that can take years to correct.

Azaleas and camellias produce next spring's buds on this summer's growth. Shearing or pruning them heavily during the growing season will eliminate next year's flowers. Shearing azaleas and camellias also forces a lot of new, congested branch growth in the interior of the plant as well as a lot of new leaves on the exterior.

Size and shape on such plants like azaleas, loropetalum can be easily controlled by clipping out wayward branches and cleaning out old wood. The shape may not be rigidly formal, but it will have a clean appearance.

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Tip: If the hedge is a flowering variety, trim it within one month of when it finishes blooming. This allows time for the hedge to form new blossoms for the next flower show. [Picture and tip from donnan.com.]