According to an old saying, if you’ve properly pruned your shrubs, they shouldn’t look pruned. That’s sage advice — unless, of course, you’re pruning shrubs to look like Donald Duck at Disney World.

My red- and yellow-twig dogwoods have gotten bigger than I was expecting and now have very little color in their stems. These are supposed to be good plants for winter color, but now they look drab — ...

Some shrubs are planted mainly for their bright winter bark: vivid streaks of red or yellow that defy gray weather and seem to spark against a background of snow. To keep that bright color, these ...

Some plants like creek dogwood have branches or stems that get less vigorous over time and need a good pruning every 2 to 4 years. Winter is the best time for pruning out old stems in garden shrubs.

Early spring is a great time to get the gardening season underway. March is the ideal time to prune trees and bushes. The branches are still bare, revealing the structure of the plant and making any ...

Q: My wife wants to cut our 12-foot red twig dogwood practically to the ground, because only the twigs at the top of the shrub are colorful. I told her it would kill it. Am I right? A: Don’t bet a ...

Home gardeners can prune away damaged plant stems and diseased branches at any time of year, but giving certain plants a significant trim in summer isn’t always the best choice. Although some plants ...