Can You Severely Cut Down Hedges and They Will Grow Green Again?

Leggy, woody, scraggly, spindly, yellowish, unkempt, and unsightly. No, it's non roll phone call for the cast of some dozing-princess fairy story. If you lot're like most people, it'southward the perfect clarification for that sad-looking hedge bordering your k.

Rows of thickly planted shrubs tin be a handsome manner to define borders and boundary lines, keep children and pets in (or out), and give birds shelter and even nutrient. Just like all shrubs, hedges demand regular watering, feeding, and pruning to await their best. Though folks may forget to give roots a skillful potable in hot weather or to fertilize in early spring with a skillful 10-x-10 formula, the last expanse is where most of us really lose it.

"A lot of people are intimidated by pruning, just information technology'due south a science anyone tin can master," says This Old House mural contractor Roger Cook. "Y'all just accept to acquire a few nuts."

Here are some expert tips that will assist yous maintain hedge plantings.

How to Maintain Hedges

i. Hand-pruning is a must in conjunction with shearing

Using shears—whether mitt-held pruners with long scissor-like blades or a ability trimmer—to take off co-operative tips, keeps hedges keen and tidy, and also stimulates bud production almost the plants' edges.

But equally buds multiply, a shrub can get and so thick that sunlight tin can't penetrate it, preventing interior growth. The result: a hedge that gets larger each twelvemonth and looks lifeless inside. Proper pruning allows some sunlight to get in and enables you to cut back shrubs and then they don't get too big.

So at each shearing, be certain to use bypass mitt pruners to create some spaces in the hedge for light and air. Every few feet, reach inside and prune a branch or two at a 45-degree angle, just above a nub or leaflet that's growing in a direction you desire to encourage.

If a hedge is old and seriously overgrown, you lot'll need to do some rejuvenation pruning using the three-yr rule. Remove up to one-third of the thickest stems down at the base of the found, stimulating new growth; repeat the next year, and the year later. This will leave yous with a healthier shrub that's reduced in size.

2. Clip in the winter

Ideally, hedges should be pruned in late wintertime, when plants are dormant and haven't produced buds—specially if you're cut back drastically. "Y'all don't want them to break bud before you prune because you want the establish'due south energy to go toward producing new growth where yous want information technology," says Roger. "If you lot take off a institute's buds, you're cutting off spent energy, and it will take longer for the hedge to fill out."

Evergreens, in particular, require pruning early in the season; because they're by and large slower-growing, they're likely to exist bare (where interior cuts have been made), and off-color at the tips (also xanthous) as new growth starts to show, well into the summer.

Faster-growing deciduous hedge plants such every bit privet, spirea, and viburnum are more than forgiving. With flowering shrubs, the golden rule of pruning is to expect until the day after blooms turn brown—that manner the plant volition accept fourth dimension to set up buds for next year, whether it blooms on the current season'south woods or the side by side'south.

Hand-pruning the tips of a fastigiate white pine will help rein in its overall size.

three. Hedges should be narrower at the elevation, wider at the bottom

Left alone, most hedges will kickoff to widen at the top, where they receive the most sunlight. This results in a V shape that shades out lower branches and so they produce less and less foliage. "You want to plow that V upside downwardly," says Roger. A sheared hedge should e'er exist wider at the lesser and narrower at the top, whether that top is flat, pointed, or rounded.

When shearing, offset at the bottom and work up toward the top. For absolute precision cutting, you tin besides run a string line between stakes to ensure an even line along the top, but Roger prefers to rely on his eye for a more than natural look.

Call back that once you fizz-cut the peak of a institute, it is more decumbent to snow damage (cleaved branches) because information technology won't shed snow as readily. Tall hedges benefit from beingness tied up for winter—just exist sure to use rope or chain lock (plastic tree-guying material) rather than hose-covered wire, which can girdle the trunks if left on besides long.

iv. Decide how high and wide you want your hedge before planting

If you're starting from scratch, cull plants that lend themselves to making a hedge, meaning they naturally grow upright and tight—the words 'columnar' or 'fastigiate' in the proper noun indicate that kind of growing habit.

For formal hedges, those shrubs volition also need to tolerate shearing and frequent pruning, like yew, privet, and boxwood. More often than not, a hedge needs a minimum of 3 feet in width. When it comes to elevation, keeping your hedge at nigh centre level volition make maintenance easier; otherwise, be prepared to climb a ladder to become at the upper reaches.

The best course is to figure out how loftier and broad y'all want your hedge to be before you constitute. "Research the addiction of whatever plant y'all desire to hedge," says Roger, "then choose a multifariousness that won't overgrow your space. Otherwise you'll be fighting an uphill battle trying to cutting the hedge down to size."

Good choices for larger, more naturally shaped evergreen hedges that require minimal pruning include western arborvitae, eastern cherry cedar, juniper, cypress, hemlock, fastigiate white pino, and some varieties of holly. Where 4-season foliage isn't needed, you lot might consider informal hedges of flowering shrubs, such equally forsythia, lilac, hydrangea, rose of sharon, crape myrtle, or rugo­sa roses.

5. Know the difference between a hedge and privacy plants

Don't expect a hedge to provide a lot of privacy or to block an unwanted view. Hedges are generally maintained at 6 to eight feet high; privacy plantings tin rise thirty feet. In general, screen plantings are much wider, as well, fabricated upwardly of a mix of staggered evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and perennials for a natural look. "Let a hedge be a hedge—an bonny shrub edge that encloses your g and unifies the landscape," says Roger. "If privacy'southward what you're after, start looking at big trees."

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Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/landscaping/21015336/how-to-maintain-hedges#:~:text=If%20a%20hedge%20is%20old,year%2C%20and%20the%20year%20after.

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