Corrective pruning is the removal of broken, diseased, dead, or other unsafe branches from a plant. Some of the benefits of corrective pruning are:
- Increased airflow and light penetration: Pruning selected branches can help allow more sunlight to reach a shrub or tree and ensure better airflow, leading to the improvement of the overall health of the plants.
- Return tree to natural form: Corrective pruning helps restore the plant to a natural shape.
- Permits groundcover: The pruning process opens up the landscape, allowing groundcover plants to flourish.
For example, we performed corrective pruning on this juniper shrub. You see the from the shrub’s appearance before and after the shrub was taken back to more of a natural, less dense form, which will allow better airflow and less competition for nutrients.
Structural Pruning
On the other hand, structural pruning involves trimming young and developing shrubs or trees to promote a strong and healthy structure. Structural pruning’s benefits include:
- Reduced potential for storm damage: A well-structured tree or shrub is less likely to suffer severe damage in a storm. For example, broken or weak branches are more likely to fall off during strong winds and could damage property or residents.
- Reduced disease issues: Proper structural pruning can remove diseased parts of trees, thereby reducing the spread of disease or pests.
- Reduced future maintenance costs: Regular structural pruning can save homeowners from high-cost emergency tree work by making their trees safer early on.
An example of structural pruning is our recent work on cherry laurel shrubs. Our team reduced these cherry laurels to gain visibility to this client’s window boxes. Hand pruning is the best way to reduce cherry laurels so we can make all internodal cuts (cuts made between buds or lateral branches.) The shearing of cherry laurels will often cause the browning of severed leaves.
