Let's Grow Stuff

- Greetings from the garden, and welcome back to Let's Grow Stuff!

My name is Ben, and today we are at Olbrich Botanical Gardens in Madison, Wisconsin to tackle an important winter job in the garden, pruning our shrubs.

Let's get to it.

Winter pruning helps to keep our shrubs vibrant and healthy by stimulating fresh growth.

Today, we're tackling Dogwood and Hydrangeas, and we're gonna start with Dogwood.

These shrubs naturally grow in multi-stem clumps.

We're focusing on getting rid of older wood, and you can identify these branches because the color of the bark will be less vibrant compared to the younger stems.

Grab your pruners and make sure they're sharp.

Give them a spritz of denatured alcohol to disinfect them before pruning and if you need a refresher on tool care, check out our "Essential Tools" episode.

There is a general rule of thumb for Dogwoods and other clump-forming shrubs, and that is to remove no more than 30% of the branches.

So, it's important to evaluate your plant before you begin.

Identify older shoots and trace them back to the base of the plant and remove it right at ground level.

This will stimulate that new vigorous and colorful growth.

Plan to prune your Dogwood and clumping shrubs every two to three years.

Next, let's tackle Hydrangeas, and these are a bit different than Dogwood.

We're specifically pruning Panicle Hydrangeas here, and you can recognize them by the cone shape of their flowers.

I like to wait to prune until late February to early March because, as you can see, they have tremendous winter interest.

It's also important to make sure that you prune before they break dormancy in spring.

Grab your pruners, and don't forget to disinfect between each individual plant.

As you can see, we're removing about 50% of the total plant volume, and we're leaving two to three dormant buds at the base of each stem.

These will become our flowers later this summer.

Also, be sure to remove any obvious dead or damaged branches as they can lead to pest and disease issues if not addressed.

Ideally, you should plan to prune your Hydrangeas every year to keep the flowers coming and the size of the shrubs in check.

Well, there you have it.

As you can see, there is always something to do in the garden, no matter the season.

And don't forget, there is so much more to learn online at pbswisconsin.org/ letsgrowstuff.

There, we have more videos, tips, tricks, and a blog to help you grow a better garden.

So, until next time, happy gardening.

– Announcer: Funding for Let's Grow Stuff is provided by Ganshert Nursery & Landscapes, The Focus Fund for Wisconsin Programs, and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.