Get It Growing for 02/14/25

Before plants leaf out for the spring, it’s a good idea to take some time for maintenance tasks in the garden. Here are two important items to put on your to-do list: pruning and fertilizing your trees and shrubs.

Let’s talk about pruning first. Mid-to-late February makes an ideal time for trimming away branches to shape trees and shrubs. The sap is rising and buds are swelling this time of year, so pruning now will allow plants to heal quickly and grow new branches where necessary. Pruning also causes a hormone signal that triggers regrowth in most plants. This is why we wait until the weather begins warming up — to ensure new branches and leaves won’t get cold damage.

Deciduous trees and shrubs and most evergreens respond well to pre-spring pruning. Now is your opportunity to reduce the size of plants that have outgrown their space, correct symmetry issues and lift the canopy of trees.

Exceptions include spring-flowering shrubs and trees — like Japanese magnolias, azaleas and bigleaf hydrangeas — that set flower buds the previous year. If you cut these plants back now, you won’t have any blooms later this year! They should be pruned immediately after flowering in late spring.

So, take a look around your landscape. What needs some tidying and shaping? Perhaps you have a row of evergreen shrubs like boxwoods that look a bit unkempt. Do you have deciduous trees like bald cypresses and crape myrtles that have sprouted low-hanging branches? Maybe you would like to remove these and raise the tree canopy to make it easier to maintain the ground underneath.

To prune your trees and shrubs, you’ll need a pair of sharp hand pruners. For larger branches, you may need to use loppers or a handsaw. Make sure the blades are sharp so you can easily make neat cuts, which will heal better.

Don’t make your cuts flush with the trunk — but don’t cut too far away, either. You should leave a small stub, which will leave enough tissue for the shrub or tree to be able to heal the wound.

Remember not to get carried away. A good rule of thumb in gardening is to never cut off more than one-third of a plant’s height or width at one time.

Keep your focus on shaping plants for now — not removing material that was affected by our recent freezes and appears to be dead. It’s still too early to determine the full extent of freeze damage. Wait a few more weeks and reevaluate your plants after spring growth has begun. You’ll be able to tell what is actually dead — and needs to be pruned — and what survived and was able to bounce back.

While you’re pruning, you also can fertilize your trees and shrubs to nourish them before spring. Use a two-to-three-month controlled release, balanced fertilizer. You don’t want to use fertilizer that will feed too far into the summer and cause unnecessary growth beyond early summer.

Follow the instructions on the fertilizer bag carefully. Spread the product across the root zone rather than piling it up around the trunk.

LSU AgCenter horticulturist Jason Stagg explains how to properly prune and fertilize trees and shrubs.

Now is a good time to prune trees and shrubs to shape them and remove low-hanging branches that may be in your way. Photo by Randy LaBauve/LSU AgCenter

Evergreen shrubs such as these boxwoods can be pruned now to tidy their appearance. Photo by Olivia McClure/LSU AgCenter

Use sharp loppers to prune branches. Photo by Randy LaBauve/LSU AgCenter

When pruning, leave a small stub so the tree or shrub can heal the wound. Photo by Randy LaBauve/LSU AgCenter

Fertilizing trees and shrubs now will set them up for success in the spring. Photo by Randy LaBauve/LSU AgCenter