A running joke among my circle of handy friends has always been to suggest: “Make sure you always use the right tool for the job,” while picking up a paper weight to pound a nail into the wall and hang a framed picture. When it comes to pruning, making sure you use the right tool is no joke, because the wrong lopper or undersized hand pruner could damage the plants in your landscape.
To help consumers understand what tools are best for different types of pruning, the pros at Corona Clipper, Inc. offer these tips:
First: Take Inventory. Do you have the right tools?
To effectively prune and trim all the plants in your landscape you should have four basic types of pruning tools: hand pruners, loppers, hedge shears, and saws.
Hand Pruners: Meant for cutting 1/2” to 1” diameter branches, there are two types of hand pruners, bypass and anvil. Bypass pruners use blades that slide by each other with a scissor-like cutting action. This lets you make clean, quick-healing cuts on healthy roses, shrubs and plants. Anvil pruners use a straight-edge blade that cuts against a soft metal anvil. They’re designed for trimming dry and woody growth.
Loppers: These tools have longer handles to provide extra reach and leverage for trimming growth as large as 3” in diameter. Like hand pruners they’re available with bypass or anvil cutting action. If you buy just one set of loppers, a 26” bypass model is a good basic choice.
Hedge Shears: For shaping bushes, shrubs, and hedges. A variety of blade and handle styles is available, including extendable models to provide extra reach. Use hedge shears on soft, young growth, NOT older, larger material where hand pruners or loppers work best.
Saws: For branches too big to cut cleanly with a lopper, saws are available in a wide variety of styles including straight and curved blades and with handles that are fixed or which fold for easy carrying.
When purchasing pruning tools, avoid so-called ‘bargain’ tools that lose their edges quickly and won’t tolerate hard use. Otherwise, you’ll wind up spending more in the long run and risk damaging your trees and shrubs.
For Tips on When and How to Prune visit www.coronaclipper.com and click on “Gardening Advice” to download the popular Principles of Pruning.
There are no comments yet!