{"id":2983,"date":"2019-09-27T00:08:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-27T07:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-609\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T15:12:41","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T22:12:41","slug":"on-pruning-daphnes","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/on-pruning-daphnes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pruning Daphnes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have some very healthy daphne bushes full of
\nblooms and I am wondering if and how I should deadhead them…
\nor do some judicious pruning now that their
\nflowering season is about over. I live on Whidbey Island,
\nWashington. The plants are two years old and doing very well
\nwhere they are planted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The standard advice with Daphnes<\/em> is that they are
\nusually best left unpruned. If you need to keep them compact,
\nyou may be able to do a little light pruning. Peter McHoy,
\nauthor of Pruning: A Practical Guide (Abbeville Press, 1993)
\nsays that no Daphne<\/em> species needs routine pruning, but it is
\na good idea to remove straggly shoots in early spring. If you
\ndo prune hard, it will be a year before flowering returns to
\nnormal. Writing in the New York Times,<\/a> August 3, 2006,
\nLeslie Land asks John Bieber of the Daphne Society about how to prune
\nif you must: “Choose a dry morning shortly after spring bloom is over. Sharpen the
\nshears. Cut back lightly; severe pruning is always a gamble. It is
\nsafer to take two or three springs to downsize a badly overgrown plant.”<\/p>\n

Another resource, with a description of the grab-and-snip pruning technique
\nfor mounding shrubs may be found in Cass Turnbull’s The Complete
\nGuide to Landscape Design, Renovation and Maintenance<\/em> (2006).
\nAlthough she advises against pruning Daphnes unless it’s absolutely necessary,
\nthis technique can be used in spring. Cut off or cut back to a side branch and
\nbranch that is lying on the ground or extending into places where you do not
\nwant it to go. You can also remove some of the longest branches that are lying on top of other branches.<\/p>\n

I would err on the side of conservatism, as Daphnes<\/em> can be
\ntemperamental. Since yours are doing so well, I suggest that
\nyou only remove the bare minimum of leggy limbs, if you decide to prune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have some very healthy daphne bushes full of blooms and I am wondering if and how I should deadhead them… or do some judicious pruning now that their flowering season is about over. I live on Whidbey Island, Washington. The plants are two years old and doing very well where they are planted. The standard advice with Daphnes is that they are usually best left unpruned. If you need to keep them compact, you may be able to do…<\/p>\n

Continue reading Pruning Daphnes<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[656,275],"class_list":["post-2983","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-daphne","keyword-pruning-shrubs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/2983"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=2983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}