Winter is a fine time to prune many trees, shrubs, perennials, and ornamental grasses. Arguably, it's the best time, as you can more easily see the "bones" of the garden, worry less about damaging smaller, neighboring plants, and it gets you out of the house to do something physical.
Pruning Lilacs
We love our lilac shrubs with their exemplary fragrance in May but almost any lilac that has not been pruned for two years or more is likely to have flowers up high, out of optimal sniffing range. Pruning can help keep your lilac to a manageable size, accentuate its lovely form, and improve flowering. Sometimes, a complete refresh is needed (coppicing). In this post, we walk you through several options for pruning your lilac bush, using helpful diagrams.
Summer Pruning Tips
It's summer! Things are planted and blooming, you want to be outside in the nice weather, and you're keeping up proper watering practices, of course. So proper, in fact, that some plants have gone a little crazy and need pruning!