We had a couple of pleasant days last week, and I confess to a little snipping on a few shrubs, but I will wait two or three weeks before I begin pruning in earnest. Every winter we seem to have a hard cold snap and a late snow, so it is best to begin pruning shrubs and trees in mid-February and finish by mid-March.

Right now, most shrubs, trees, and perennials are dormant; they are putting out little if any new growth. Spring-flowering shrubs bloom on old wood and are pruned right after they finish blooming, but summer-flowering shrubs bloom on new wood and are pruned in late winter to early spring. Then there are hydrangeas, which I wrote about on March 30, 2023. You can find that column online at https://www.gazettejournal.net. The various species of Hydrangea have their own maddening quirkiness, and it is easy to prune at the wrong time and end up with few or no flowers for a season or two.

Here are a few tips to help you know what to prune. First, remove all dead, damaged, ...