5 Plants You Should Never Prune In The Fall
Pruning is an essential gardening practice. It helps improve the look of your plants, encourages growth, and ensures they stay healthy. However, this doesn’t mean you should prune whatever you find at any time you feel like it. Cutting back your plants too early or too late or too much can really affect the way your plant grows. Sadly, it’s very easy to butcher your plants by accident. You don’t want to inhibit the growth of your beautiful plants. So, when cleaning up your garden at the end of the season, it’s important to know which plants you should skip out on pruning. Here are the plants you should never prune in the fall.
You don’t want to inhibit the growth of your beautiful plants
In this article
Plants You Should Never Prune In The Fall
Every plant has different pruning requirements and needs. Some plants should be cut back a lot during spring, while others need only a tiny trim during fall. This season it’s time for some cleanup. It’s time to rake up the leaves, prepare the garden for frost, and cut back some plants. However, don’t get too enthusiastic with the pruning scissors. Here are some plants you should forget about snipping this season.
Don’t get too enthusiastic with the pruning scissors
#Lilac
Lilacs really benefit from pruning as they can get unruly and grow huge. This plant needs to be trimmed back about a third when it is being pruned. Lilac is a fast grower and pruning helps control its growth, gets air circulating, and promotes flowering. However, this plant grows on old wood. So, the flowers for the next season start to form after the old ones have finished blooming. That’s why it’s too late to prune it in the fall, and you will do it more harm than good.
Lilac is a fast grower and pruning helps control its growth
#Rhododendrons and azaleas
Azaleas and rhododendrons are both a part of the rhododendron genus family, so they have the same pruning needs. That’s why we have put them together. These types of plants grow on old wood, which means that they grow on last season’s growth. The flowers for next year start to set in as soon as this year’s have fallen. That’s why if you prune them in the fall, you will cut off next season’s flowers. It’s best to prune them after they stop blooming in the spring within a three-week period.
Azaleas and rhododendrons are both a part of the rhododendron genus family
#Flowering fruit trees
Trees from the Prunus genes variety like peaches, plums, and cherries flourish when they get pruned. However, this is only true if they are pruned during the spring or summer. This variety of plants is site susceptible to fungal disease, and it can cost them a lot of branches. This type of fungus spreads through insects and the wind and gets inside the trees through their wounds. The fungus is most prominent during fall and winter, which is why you should avoid cutting them back during this season.
This variety of plants is site susceptible to fungal disease
#Climbing hydrangeas
There are a lot of hydrangea varieties and they all have different needs. It’s important to check out what type you have before you start pruning. This advice applies to climbing hydrangea varieties, like the oakleaf hydrangea or the mountain hydrangea. These types grow on old wood, so it’s not smart to cut them back during fall as you will stunt next year’s flowers.
This advice applies to climbing hydrangea varieties
#Forsythia
This beautiful spring flowering shrub brings joy to the eyes after a long winter. Remember that next time you are thinking of pruning it during the fall. Like all the other plants on this list, forsythia’s buds also grow on old wood. These buds have plenty of time to get nurtured and evolve until the next year comes. That’s why it’s important to leave them alone during the fall, so we can enjoy its beautiful colors in early spring.
Forsythia’s buds grow on old wood
These are some plants you should never prune in the fall. We hope you found this article useful. Now you know which plants to avoid pruning this chilly season, so you don’t damage them and can ensure they grow healthy for the next season.
These are some plants you should never prune in the fall
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