You may have heard that pruning spruce trees in the landscape is an important way of maintaining their health, size, shape, and vigor. But this is more applicable to deciduous trees than evergreens.

Q: I have volunteered to help our church with yard maintenance. I need to trim back all the bushes, but my concern is the blue spruce tree. It is a very nice tree, but it is growing over the parking ...

Shrubs and trees can be pruned to improve structure, maximize blooms and/or fruit production, or to remove damaged or diseased branches. Such branches should be removed as soon as possible. They ...

Most bushes that flower in the summer do so on new growth. That means you can prune anything you like in the spring, since the new growth hasn’t started yet. Butterfly bush and rose of sharon fall ...

There’s an old saying in pruning: “Prune until it hurts, and then prune some more.” The advice helps overcome our fear of cutting away too many branches. Other pruning adages are less useful. “When in ...

Varied plants with colorful flowers blooming in a garden with white chair - Darrell Gulin/Getty Images Pruning — a term that invokes fear in the best of the gardeners, and for good reason. Pruning is ...

Formative pruning on young trees is one of the most overlooked landscape maintenance practices in Minnesota landscapes. As I work with the city forester in Rochester to finalize plans on a training ...

Editor’s note: Throughout the growing season, Mike Hogan, OSU Extension educator for Agriculture and Natural Resources in Franklin County, will answer gardening and home landscape questions submitted ...