3 Tips for Pruning a
Mountain Laurel
By Do It Yourself Staff
A mountain laurel is an evergreen shrub
that grows large flowers in shades of pink and white. It only ever sheds leaves
to accommodate new growth. Follow these tips when pruning your mountain laurel,
as careless cutting can leave evergreens disfigured or destroyed.
Since
your mountain laurel can grow up to 10 feet tall, consider purchasing a set of
pole pruners. These help you to reach all those high spots on your mountain
laurel. You will also need lopping shears, hand shears and scissor action
shears.
Pruning
You
may not have to prune very much off of your mountain laurel, but you can prune
it all the way back into a leafless wood that is 2 to 4 feet off the ground.
This can take 2 to 3 years to fully grow back. By the next growing season, new
shoots will begin to form as long as the plant is healthy and well maintained.
You
will otherwise need to use a thinning and renewal method on your shrub. Remove
dead branches to improve the light infiltration which will bring out the
actual exquisiteness of your mountain laurel.
Heading
Shaping
shrubs consists of simply shortening each individual branch in a method is
known as heading. This involves pruning the branch right above a bud or even
another branch. To ensure that your evergreen will be able to rejuvenate, be
sure to leave some kind of foliage when thinning.
Beware
of dead zones of needles that have withered away on the inside of your mountain
laurel. These needles have not gotten the right amount of sun to flourish. It
is very important that all of the pruning that takes place on your mountain
laurel is above its dead zone. Any cutting that is done below it could
completely disfigure your shrub.
Extra Tips
Wait
until your mountain laurel flowers have finished blooming before you prune.
However, if you wait until late fall or winter, you will severely diminish the
amount of blooms that you will have the following growing season.
You
can also prune when the growth begins to control the shape of your shrub. As
mentioned above, knowing where the dead zone is on your shrub can keep it from
becoming permanently disfigured.
Read more: http://www.doityourself.com/stry/3-tips-for-pruning-a-mountain-laurel#.UqxxGI2A1D8#ixzz2nSewwpxr
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