You may have heard that pruning spruce trees in the landscape is an important way of maintaining their health, size, shape, and vigor. But this is more applicable to deciduous trees than evergreens.

Prune lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) lightly after bloom, while deferring moderate pruning until spring. (Jacquelyne S. Collins) We're well into fall and the questions keep coming. Get answers from ...

Q: I have volunteered to help our church with yard maintenance. I need to trim back all the bushes, but my concern is the blue spruce tree. It is a very nice tree, but it is growing over the parking ...

A: Blue spruce is tolerant of winds without any input from humans, so I wonder where it is you have them planted and how they were planted. Many people, even professionals, make mistakes. One is ...

Q: I need to prune an arborvitae hedge because it is too tall. I’d like to remove 3 or 4 feet off the top of these shrubs. When is the best time to prune them? A: Late winter or early spring is ...

Garden long enough, and you’re almost guaranteed to one day encounter a nest of stinging insects while pruning or weeding. Yellowjackets and baldfaced hornets are two of the most common bugs that ...

Q. I have a couple of blue spruce trees. Someone told me to trim the bottom two layers of branches that are touching the ground. Is this a common practice/procedure and/or is there any benefit to the ...

Well, summer is half over. I don’t measure by the solstice calendar, I measure by June, July and August; that’s summer! By late summer, most of the spring bloomers have already set their buds for next ...

I have a few English Ilex which are at least 15 years old and are much too large. I would like to cut them way back. When is the proper time to cut them? Also, when is a good time to cut a baby blue ...