Selective hand pruning vs. shearing

There is too much misinformation floating around out there about pruning. The primary misconceptions are that pruning will kill or damage plants, but mostly, that you can shear plants to the size you want them. The ladder is in a sense true but it is not a sustainable option for the long term health of a plant. Shearing is brutal on plants and should only be reserved for a few kinds of plants: Boxwoods, Japanese Holly, Yaupon Holly, Azaleas (under very specific circumstances), lavender, and conifers (if they have been trained as such). If you have literally any other species of plants (with rare exceptions) do not shear! Hand pruning is the far superior option to keep the natural shape of the plant and preserve their health. I can’t tell you how many Japanese maples and camellias I have seen that are almost completely ruined by shearing by so called “landscapers” who do not know how to properly hand prune.

Properly pruned Japanese maple preserves natura shape while the size is strategically contained

Hand pruning involves making many “selective heading cuts” at branch junctions or leaf nodes. This can help guide the plant to the direction the pruner wants it and remove strange or unwanted branches. Dead, and badly crossing branches can easily be removed while hand pruning which helps air flow in the plant. Shearing on the other hand makes thousands of “non-selective cuts” which leave wounds and activate dormant meristems in the plants tissue that activate shoot regrowth. Sheared plants have to then be re-sheared up to four times per year!

When a shrub has been repeatedly sheared for too long the best option is to make what are called “thinning cuts”. This is where a branches are selected almost at random where the foliage load is dense and are hand pruned back to branch collars to create small pockets in the shrubs to allow better airflow and light penetration. Thinning is and hand pruning are terms that could be used interchangeably. Do not be afraid to prune a plant, but prune correctly instead of indiscriminately shearing in most situations.