Pruning Time

This article in the AZ Republic points out that now is the time to prune, if you're going to, and it takes some thought:

As Eisenhower puts it, "Pruning is an art and a science. Learn the science and the art will take care of itself."So, if you want a beautiful landscape, healthy and properly growing trees, if you want to protect your investment and acquire a boatload of invaluable information about pruning, here are some of Eisenhower's time-tested observations:• Most of us suffer from fear of pruning.• In many cases, we are "chopping and topping" our trees to death.• In most cases, we are overpruning.• You should never remove more than 25 percent of the tree's foliage in any one season.• Often we plant trees in the wrong spots.• You need to justify every cut you make and know what the end result will be.• Water sprouts, the small sucker-like branches on the interior of the tree, actually play an important role in the tree's health.• Staking a tree too rigidly is a very common mistake.• Trees don't heal well if we don't prune well.

Read the whole article; it is really quite interesting. The arborist quoted in the article reminds me of The Sixth Man; he hates gas-powered shears with a fiery passion, and it's been said that as he snips each branch by hand with his very sharp hand-shears, he apologizes to the tree or shrub. But he's had a great influence on us; one of the things we hope you will never see in Morrison Ranch's common landscaping is what we not so affectionately call "bush balls": bushes that have been trimmed until they look like little cotton balls, or trees that look like lollipops. We prefer the natural look.