Practical information: key techniques for pruning garden flowers and shrubs

Flowering shrubs are shrubs that mainly watch flowers, which have various shapes and can create colorful scenery, so they are regarded as an important part of the landscape. Flowering shrubs are suitable for lakeside, stream, road and park layout, small courtyard embellishment and pot ornamental, and are often used for cutting flowers and making bonsai.

Pruning is one of the key measures to promote the healthy growth of flowering shrubs. Scientific and reasonable pruning can not only cultivate a beautiful tree shape, but also further regulate the rational distribution of nutrients in the tree, control overgrowth, and increase the amount of flowering and fruiting. So that flowering shrubs luxuriant branches and leaves, flowers bloom continuously.

Before pruning all kinds of flowering shrubs, we should first understand their growth habits, according to their natural growth law, timely and reasonable pruning, in order to achieve the best ornamental effect in the garden.

1. Flowering shrubs that bloom on new shoots of the year, such as hibiscus, crape myrtle, pearl plum, rose, etc., are suitable for pruning in winter or early spring. This kind of flowering shrub differentiates flower buds on the new shoots in the spring of the same year, flowering in late spring or summer and autumn, and pruning in winter is mainly short and thinning branches.

Short cut generally adopts the method of "light cutting of strong branches and heavy cutting of weak branches". For strong branches, only cut off the total length of the branch 1 beat 5 to 1 stroke 4. The removal of the top tip of the branch can stimulate the germination of most of the semi-full buds in the lower part, disperse the nutrients of the branch, make the branch produce more short and medium branches, and form flower buds more easily. For the renewal and rejuvenation of weak trees, old trees and old and weak branches, it is common to cut off the total length of branches from 2 to 3 to 4.

Branch thinning is to remove the branches from the base, which can adjust the uniform distribution of branches, increase the space, improve the ventilation and light transmission conditions, which is conducive to the growth and development of branches and flower bud differentiation within the crown, enhance the ornamental effect of trees, and control the vigorous growth. Thinning branches are mainly to remove dense branches, senescent branches, disease and insect branches, etc., so they should be pruned during the dormant period. In the northern region, because of the cold winter and dry spring, pruning should be postponed until the early spring temperature rise is about to sprout.

2. Flower buds formed on the branches of the previous year, that is, flowering shrubs with long leaves or flowers and leaves in early spring, such as elm-leaf plum, forsythia, green peach, Yingchun, cloves, cherry blossoms, etc., their flower buds are formed on the branches of the previous year and bloom in the next spring, so pruning is generally carried out from May to June after the flowers have withered. If pruned in winter, the branches of flower buds formed in summer and autumn will be cut off, affecting the ornamental effect of the coming year.

However, if there are too many flower branches on a branch, not pruning will consume too much nutrients, resulting in small flowers, short florescence, and easy to fall off. In order to improve the ornamental effect, the overdense short branches can be thinned properly, and the long flower branches can leave about 7 groups of flower buds (cut buds are leaf buds).

3. Flower buds are planted on perennial branches, such as Bauhinia, Begonia, etc., although most flower buds are born on biennial branches, these old branches can also differentiate flower buds when the nutritional conditions are suitable. The pruning amount of this kind of flowering shrub should be as small as possible, and the withered part of the branch tip should be cut off in early spring, and the flower bud differentiation can be affected in the growing season in order to prevent the branches from becoming too prosperous in the same year.

4. Shrubs that shoot many times a year and bloom many times, such as rose, can cut short or retract strong branches during the dormant period, and cut off cross branches, disease and insect branches, concurrent branches, weak branches and overdense inner branches at the same time.

Strong shearing is feasible in cold areas, and burying soil to prevent cold if necessary. It can be pruned many times during the growing period. Most of the flower buds of the rose differentiate at the top of the new branches that are born in the same year, and they can blossom continuously as long as they continue to produce new branches in a year. Therefore, in the growing season, whenever the flowers fade, they should be pruned immediately and cut short at the full buds under the residual flowers. Cutting buds can sprout and shoot quickly, form buds and blossom, and then cut after the flowers are shedded, so repeated, the flowers bloom continuously.

In addition, for ornamental shrubs, such as Tripterygium, mahogany, etc., because their ornamental parts are bright young branches (old branches are often dim), they are often reserved for winter viewing. In order to make it watch for a long time, it is often not pruned in autumn or winter, but before the sprouting of early spring buds, so that the winter branches can give full play to their ornamental role. When pruning, it is necessary to re-cut, leaving only 15cm to 20cm in the aboveground part, and cutting off the rest to promote more new branches. at the same time, the old stem should be gradually removed and renewed constantly.

For ornamental fruit flowering shrubs, such as holly, honeysuckle, etc., should not be re-cut. In order not to affect the fruit in autumn, it is not necessary to prune or properly cut off some overdense branches after flowering, so as to make them ventilated and transparent.