Pruning is a chore that I take on when I am in a contemplative mood or have something I need to ponder. Between the care needed to properly shape a given plant and the issue I need to work out in my head, I am in a happy place outside with a plant that needs shaping using my trusty Felco pruner.
Though one of my instructors at the @nybg said that I must deadhead rhododendrons, lilacs, Japanese Andromeda and mountain laurel to maximize new flowers every year, I heed his advice for only the lilacs and mountain laurel. (I have too many, too large, rhododendrons for this task and I never can get to the Japanese Andromeda.)
But ever since I have religiously deadheaded the mountain laurels and lilacs, I am rewarded every year with an increasing cascade of incredible flowers. So it is worth the effort.
Reminded of this the other day I decide to remove all the dead blossoms off my mountain laurels. Each former flower is now skeletonized with just a framework of its former beauty attached to the plant. Removing my glasses, I carefully move the sticky remains to the side while I snip as close to the spent flower stem as possible. The remaining pistil has color; the flower pedals are brown and denatured. One down, hundreds to go. Charlotte is visiting today so I give her a spare pruner to help me in this effort.
There is satisfaction in this trimming as sections of the bush are clean with potential as its fragrant remains find their way into my weed bucket. The air is filled with the sweet smell of a flowering end point and the bush is reborn clean and green.
