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Pruning season

At 01:11 PM 9/13/98 +0200, Marina & Anthony Green wrote:
>Dear all,
>
>Now for a very beginner's type problem:
>There seem to be so many different opinions about when the best time to
>prune things is. Now that the summer's heat has gone and the growing
>season is back, I would like to change the question around and ask what
>huge drawbacks there might be to pruning back hard now on leggy shrubs
>like Nerium Oleander, Pittosporum Tobira, Tamarisk sp. and Lantana sp.
>With so much contradictory info to choose from, I've always been much
>too shy of cutting back and now they're all getting pretty ropey!

Anthony - 

Now is a fine time to cut these guys back.  Your assumptions are correct,
pruning should always be done when active growth is resuming.  Some
plants are best pruned at specific times of the year due to flowering
cycles, etc, but as far as the health of plants is concerned, pruning as
active growth starts is generally safe.  All of the species you mention
are pretty well adapted to severe cutting back.  If the Lantana is the
lavender form (L. montevidensis) then now is fine, if it is the orange,
red, pink, or yellow form (L. carnea), then there might still be
enough warm weather for decent growth, but these are now cool season
growers and so it might be best to wait until spring.  Pittosporum tobira
might take a bit longer to regrow that Nerium or Tamarisk, depending
upon how severe you prune.  Nerium and Tamarisk are often 'stooled'
(cut down to just a foot or so above the ground) and respond well to
this treatment.

>Also, does anyone have a successfully pruned Mirica sp.? - every time
>I've pruned it, the cut area seems to go brown and die back!

Myrica, the Myrtle, is a real pain in the neck to prune well in my
opinion.  Branches often die out, pruned or unpruned, and it tends
to be difficult to shape.  I have a small tree-like specimen in my
garden which I like for the screening it provides, the fragrant
foliage and interesting shreddy bark, but it tends to get leggy very
fast and heading back seldom produces a very busy effect.  Typically,
there is always lots of twiggy growth the thin out, lots of wispy
or 'ropey' branches to head back and dark blue messy fruit.  I butcher
it routinely but improve its appearance (right on the stairs to our
front door) with a fragrant Honeysuckle (also needing lots of pruning
to remove dead branches) which grows quickly.  This year, my golden
Hops Vine (Humulus lupulus 'Aureus') invaded it a bit from around the
corner and there are now some interesting hops fruit hanging among
the Myrtle branches.  I have also thought of training a rose into this
small tree to help provide more 'distraction' in season.

Sean A. O'Hara                       sean.ohara@poboxes.com
h o r t u l u s   a p t u s          710 Jean Street
'a garden suited to its purpose'     Oakland, CA 94610-1459, U.S.A.
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