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Re: Pruning season

At 01:11 PM 9/13/98 +0200, you 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!
>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!
>
>
>Anthony
>
>
Anthony, I would say the problem is:  are you thinking of pruning hard, and
in this case, will you get enough warm days to have some new growth come
from your cuts? In my experience the only problem with oleanders, pittosps.
etc., if you prune back hard them now, is that you have to pass the next
five  months looking at naked and mutilated branches. September is usually
very good to trim and shape those plants (and formal hedges, and topiaries,
and evergreens in general) because then they will retain their shape for
quite a long time, given the natural stop in growth they experience in the
winter months. As an opposite,  when you prune them in late winter or
Spring, for instance, new growth will reappear in no time. So, my rule in
general is: September to shape and deter growth for some time, winter for
the evergreens that are prone to diseases (quercus ilex- holm oaks for
instance) late winter-early spring to encourage growth, Summer for the green
pruning to encourage flowering in some plants. Then fruit trees is another
story. 
This is the ideal world,  in the reality  we all have to face problems such
as lack of time etc., but as you are in Italy these few indications should
be of help. 
****************************************************

Alessandra Vinciguerra
American Academy in Rome
Via Masina,5
00153 Roma
Tel:0039\6\5846.444

puglisi@librs6k.vatlib.it

Check the Academy's Web site: http://www.aarome.org
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