Plan ahead when planting, pruning evergreens

By Rebecca Petersen | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, April 5, 2008

Do you have to go out your front door sideways? That arborvitae just got too wide, didn't it? Can't walk up the sidewalk to the door because of a too wide juniper? If they are not too large or too old, you can probably make good neighbors of them by judicious pruning.

If, on the other hand, that tree is rubbing against the house and taller than the chimney, your best bet is to take it down and start over. Next time, plan ahead. Trees do get taller and wider. Move them at least four feet from the house. Further, if it will be a full sized tree.

Conifers have two types of growth. You need to know the growth habit of the tree or shrub you are dealing with. The first type is whorled branching. These are the pines, spruces and firs. They have branches at regular intervals along a main stem.

You can't "shrink" these trees because they don't have latent buds on older wood, although some red and Scotch pines can resprout from old wood, if it still has needles.

You can, however, make these trees fatter or slow them down by nipping off about a fourth to a third of the new candles in the spring. These are not trees you want to plant right next to your house unless you plan to hide the house and later enter it with a chain saw.

The other growth type is the random branching conifer. This includes juniper, arborvitae, hemlock, and yew. Redwoods also fall into this category but since they don't grow here we will ignore them. You prune these trees to keep them a manageable size; create a more natural appearance, or a more unnatural one — spiral for instance — or to get more light penetration.

If you are shortening branches, cut deep within the plant so you don't see branch stubs. You can also shear these particular trees to make them look like lollipops, triangles, spirals or most any shape you can envision, if that is what floats your boat.

Most random branching conifers will resprout when cut back to old wood. Yew is especially forgiving. Cut it back any amount anywhere and it will soon sprout even on very old wood. If you have a conifer hedge, be sure to make the top narrower than the bottom.

If you skip this, it won't be long before you will have bare "legs" on the bottom of your hedge because it didn't get enough sun all the way down the side of the hedge. Those "bare legs" are great trash collectors, too.

Sharpen up the clippers, and get out now before the weather gets too warm.

Bev Johnson is a master gardener for West Otter Tail County.