Pruning Trees and Shrubs: Best Practices for Sarasota Homeowners

Let’s face it, pruning is scary if you’re not a pro. 

You’re standing there with sharp shears, facing a favorite shrub, worried if you snip the wrong spot at the wrong time — disaster. 

So, you decide to do nothing. That’s not good either. 

This is why some homeowners are discovered crouched by their bougainvillea, traumatized and babbling, holding brand new pruning shears. 

So, what are the best tips for pruning trees and shrubs? Don’t prune off the flower buds of flowering trees and shrubs or you won’t have any pretty blooms. Use sharp pruning shears. Only prune completely brown and dead palm fronds — if there’s any hint of green, your palm still needs the frond for nutrients. 

Let’s learn more about seasonal pruning in Sarasota, including: 

• Why is Pruning Trees and Shrubs So Important?

• When to Prune? Seasonal Pruning in Sarasota 

• Tree Pruning Best Practices 

• Pruning Trees and Shrubs: Keep Those Pruners Sharp

• Next Up: What to Prune?

• All Done? Time to Tidy Up

• Tree Pruning Best Practices FAQ

• Why Leave Pruning to the Pros? 

Why is Pruning Trees and Shrubs So Important? 

A few key reasons: 

• Disease prevention: Removing dead or diseased branches stops any infections from spreading and encourages air circulation around your tree or shrub, which reduces the chance of fungal diseases.

• Safety: pruning out weak branches prevents them from being hazards during storms. Falling branches can injure people and damage property.

• Healthy growth: proper pruning directs a tree or shrub’s energy to the most productive branches, for a healthy, vigorous plant.

• Size and shape: pruning trees and shrubs helps a plant keep an attractive shape and helps prevent it from getting overgrown.

• Rejuvenation: Proper pruning can actually revitalize an old, neglected shrub. It’s like a refreshing spa treatment. (Book one for yourself, too. You deserve it.)

When to Prune? Seasonal Pruning in Sarasota

Sorry, but there’s no easy answer to this. You’ll have to bear with us here for a couple minutes as we offer a bit of a Sarasota homeowners’ pruning guide.
 
While the proper time to prune your shrubs and trees is really important, the timing changes here in Sarasota, based on the temperature and the amounts of rain we get. Bloom cycles fluctuate here. 

In general, the best time for seasonal pruning in Sarasota is in late winter or early spring. But to be honest, pruning is actually a near constant task here. Things grow really fast. 

A big exception: spring-flowering shrubs. More on this in a bit. 

Meanwhile, here are some helpful guidelines: 

Don’t Prune Too Late in the Season 

When you prune, your plant instinctively puts out a spurt of new growth. So you don’t want to prune plants too close to chilly weather. Pruning trees and shrubs too late in the season, in late summer or early fall, makes that tender new growth susceptible to injury from cold. It’s not as tough as the rest of the plant.

Flowering Shrub Pruning Tips 

The timing of pruning is especially crucial when it comes to popular flowering shrubs like azalea, bougainvillea and hibiscus. 

If you prune at the wrong time, you’ll cut off all the buds. Guess what that means? No pretty flowers. You’ll be depressed for weeks. 

So, it’s really important to know when your flowering shrub sets its flower buds, so you don’t snip them off. 

Pruning Hibiscus

Let’s all pause for a minute and sigh over the sheer beauty of hibiscus. 

Hibiscus flowers can be up to nearly 10 inches in diameter — huge! The stunning blooms come in red, pink, orange and yellow and are the ultimate tropical paradise flower. 

Treat them right, and you’ll be rewarded with nearly year-round flowers.

If you’re rolling your eyes as you’re reading this and muttering, “Mine don’t bloom all year,” that might actually be due to too much pruning. It’s a good thing you’re here for some shrub pruning tips. 

Some homeowners and even some landscape maintenance companies trim hibiscus every month. Please, stop. That cuts off the new buds. 

Tropical Gardens Landscape crews trim hibiscus a foot from the ground in spring and a foot from the ground in fall. That’s it. 

Do that, then enjoy those spectacular flowers as big as your head. 

But if you’re too timid about pruning your hibiscus and decide to just skip it, that’s bad, too. All the new growth will grow at the top of your plant and will shade the bottom. Then the bottom won’t get the sunlight it needs for photosynthesis and healthy growth. It will only have leaves on the top 8-10 inches, which looks weird. The neighbors will whisper.'

Pruning Bougainvillea 

This vine-like shrub wows you with its impressive array of colors — pink, red, orange, yellow, white, or purple. What a tragedy if you prevented the stunning show by snipping off the flower buds. 

So keep your eye on the calendar for this one. Prune this lovely no later than the end of September. Then, don’t go near it with pruners again until April.
Pruning Azalea
Yes, azaleas are absolutely beautiful, and their fragrant, colorful flowers are favorites of pollinators like bees and butterflies, too. Don’t tick off the bees and butterflies by taking away their blossoms. 

Too bad azaleas are only in bloom for a week or two in February or March. Who came up with that sad plan? But if your azalea isn’t pruned correctly, you won’t get any flowers at all. Even sadder. 

So don’t prune your azalea in summer — you’ll snip off the important buds that will turn into those stunning spring flowers. Prune shortly after they’ve bloomed. If you’re firing up the grill for your Fourth of July cookout, you’ve waited way too long.

Tree Pruning Best Practices 

In general, the best time to prune trees in Florida is late winter to early spring just before the spring growth flush. If it’s a spring-blooming tree, prune right after it’s done blooming.

Let’s take a look at a couple favorites that have specific pruning tips: 

Crape Myrtle

There are lots of reasons to
plant crape myrtles — bright flowers, pretty bark, brilliant fall color. They’re landscape superstars. 

But don’t prune them until March, please. Then, take it easy. 

You’d be surprised how many people start whacking away at these beautiful trees, chopping off a few feet until there’s nothing left but ugly stubby trunks. It’s a crime, actually. That’s why it’s called “crape murder.” Don’t be a criminal. 

Palm Tree Pruning Best Practices 

The easiest way to prune a palm tree? Let the palm do it. 

But this only works if you have a self-cleaning palm, like a royal, foxtail, Christmas or bottle palm. 

A self-cleaning palm means that the older, dead palm fronds will fall away from the trunk on their own — no need for pruning.

When the frond dies, it falls down and you pick it up. Easiest pruning ever. 

Palms that aren’t self-cleaning require occasional pruning to remove the brown fronds after they die — ideally in spring.
 
A few palm tree pruning tips:

• Only trim palm fronds that are completely brown and lifeless. Fronds with even a hint of green are still crucial for the tree's health. That spot where the frond attaches to the trunk is where the tree gets its nutrients. As long as there’s some green in the frond, it’s helping to feed your tree. Removing too many leaves will result in less food for your palm tree, weaken it, and increase the risk of damage from wind, insects and disease.

• Some South Florida HOAs require that residents get their palm trees trimmed before hurricane season to limit dangerous flying debris. It also makes for easier clean up later after the storm. You might get a letter in May telling you about this. There’s usually a July deadline, which sounds like plenty of time, but don’t procrastinate. Landscaping companies book up and you don’t want a stressful scramble to get this important pruning done in time.

• But avoid extreme “hurricane cutting,” where most of the fronds are cut off — that can cause serious damage to your palm. Most of the fronds are best left on the palm because they actually help to protect the palm during high winds.

Pruning Trees and Shrubs: Keep Those Pruners Sharp 

Dull pruners are bad news. 

Good pruning is all about making a precise, clean cut. If your blade is dull and you tear or crush the branches, you’ll leave behind damaged tissue that’s susceptible to pests and diseases.  Not good. 

How important is this? Tropical Gardens crews get new blades every month. Yes, we get excited. Don’t judge.

Next Up: What to Prune? 

You already know not to cut off those crucial flower buds. What should you snip?

• Remove any dead, damaged, or diseased branches. Pests and diseases can lurk here, and you don’t want these problems spreading to the rest of the plant.

• Prune back any overgrown branches.

• Thin out areas that are too thick and dense. You want good air circulation.

• Trim any branches growing in weird directions.

• Remove any suckers — new shoots growing from the base of the plant.

• Prune off any “water sprouts,” which are fast-growing, upright shoots growing from the branches. You want all your plant’s energy going toward new desirable growth.

All Done? Time to Tidy Up

Pruning trees and shrubs is kind of nerve wracking. When you’re all done, reward yourself! An ice cream sundae, maybe, or some key lime pie.

But first, take a few minutes to clean up. Remove any branches or debris you’ve trimmed. Clean and disinfect your pruners before using them again to prevent the spreading of any diseases between plants.

Tree Pruning Best Practices FAQ

Q. When is the best time to prune trees and shrubs?
A. Generally, late winter or early spring during the dormant season is best, but there are exceptions, especially when it comes to flowering shrubs and trees. Not sure? Ask a pro.

Q. What should be pruned first?
A. Go for the "3 Ds"—dead, damaged or diseased wood.

Q. How much should you remove?
A. A good rule of thumb: don’t remove more than 25-30 percent of a plant at one time.

Q. Where do you make the cut? 
A. Look for the branch “collar” — the swelling where the branch meets the trunk. Make the pruning cuts just outside the branch collar.

Why Leave Pruning to the Pros? 

So many reasons, including the fact that you have better things to do than figure out how to locate your shrub’s “branch collar.” Don’t some people get paid to do this? Yes! Call us. 

Other good reasons: 

• Proper pruning takes real horticulture knowledge and skill. Even some pro landscaping crews mess this up. Some landscaping companies roar in with hedge trimmers and automatically shear off all the new growth every month. Yikes. Say bye to those beautiful hibiscus blooms.

• Remember when we shared earlier that Sarasota temperature and rainfall help determine when plants should be pruned? We keep track. Do you really want to have to be a local weather expert?

• Do you have just one shrub or tree in your yard? Probably not. If you have a variety of trees and shrubs with different bloom cycles, that means keeping track of lots of different pruning timing. Ugh. We’ll do it, no problem.

• Tropical Gardens crews get training in proper pruning techniques for Sarasota trees and shrubs. Our crew leaders take horticulture classes so they know exactly what each of your trees and shrubs need to thrive. 

Need Pruning Services in Sarasota? Talk to Us 

Pruning is definitely trickier than it looks. It can really stress you out. You need detailed knowledge of exactly what to prune when, how much to trim off, and when not to prune at all. 

Sarasota pruning services to the rescue. 

We’ve got you covered, with tailored, full-service residential landscaping for Sarasota homeowners that includes expert pruning that’s always perfectly timed. 

Give us a call or fill out our form today! Our team of Sarasota landscape experts can’t wait to help you set aside your panic about pruning and breathe easier about your landscaping.