Professional Pruning

Hedge pruning the healthy way is squaring or rounding your shrub groupings to keep their size and shape and allowing the sunlight to reach far inside for healthy new branches and leaves to grow. This is a simple yet affective method of pruning. I do not recommend using "hedge trimmers" because they only prune the outward growing soft green growth; this leaves too many branches growing at the tips, leaving the inside devoid of sunlight and the plant will eventually die because of this. We will hand prune using specific tools for correct plant care.

The natural or naturalistic form for garden shrubs and small trees is basically allowing the plant

to grow naturally but pruning to keep the plant in specific bounds. Like this picture shown,

Hydrangea 'Quick Fire', all that was done was to deadhead the old blooms and trim and outwardly wild growing branches.

Topiary is the technique of pruning woody plants into specific shapes. You can basically prune any shape you can dream up. All that is needed is a woody ornamental plant and time. Purple Leaf can both create and maintain your topiary.

This is the practice of pruning trees into flat linear shapes. The most common espaliered form is with horizontal lines growing from a straight center trunk planted up against a wall or fence. Stand alone espalier groups can also be planted in the open or middle of the garden to create a partition or wall. Espalier design will take time; it's best to start with young plants and train them into shape by either using poles or ties to hold branches in place, later pruning off the branches that don't belong. Over time, these plants can produce both flower and fruit in the most amazing way.

This is not to be confused with "tree-form" shrubs, which is a practice that I don't particularly like because these plants are usually multi-stemed shrubs pruned or trained with a single trunk to look like a single trunk tree. They are usually not grafted and they tend to grow suckers at the base of the trunk. The "Grafted Standard Form" is the better option because a plant with a single trunk is trained to grow straight, usually a common non-cultivar species is used, then a specific cultivar of the same species is grafted at a specific height on the top of the trunk. This form usually creates a round ball on top of a tall narrow trunk. If this form is planted in the correct place, it can accent a formal garden or add a unique feature to a cottage garden. Choose wisely when deciding on the plant species because many nurseries grow plants that do not live well long term in this form. Purple Leaf will help you decide on the best plants for this method of pruning.

For the purpose of pruning technique, this is bonsai. Even though this is considered container gardening, bonsai is still an intensive pruning endeavor. All bonsai need specific pruning to look like miniature trees. When growing bonsai, perfect pruning techniques should be applied. If you want a bonsai of your own or need help or advice, please feel free to ask us.