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GLT's Grow: Timing Trimming

Radomir Cernoch
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Flickr via Creative Commons

Timing is everything in the garden, and for Karen in the Twin Cities, it's all about her boxwoods and yews. Should it be spring?  Fall? Summer? Murph has some timely advice.

  • Boxwoods should be trimmed in late dormancy, late February to the first of May.  This should be part of your pre-spring yard word prep. 
  • However, if you have a damaged or dead branch on the plant, you should remove right away.  Don't wait.
  • There are three main boxwoods, English, Korean, and American.  Prune inside an English boxwood to let sun into the plant.  
  • Yews need to be trimmed in late March into mid-June.
  • Yews are one of the oldest domesticated plants in the landscape.
  • You can choose between letting the plant keep it's natural form and just trim to keep it in lilne, or you could go with a more formal presentation, a large ball or rectangle.
  •  Use pruners, a lopper, hedge sheers or a hand saw. For small branches, you can even trim with your fingers.
Reporter, content producer and former All Things Considered host, Laura Kennedy is a native of the Midwest who occasionally affects an English accent just for the heck of it. Related to two U.S. presidents, Kennedy appalled her family by going into show business.