Content

• Steps
• Tips
• Warnings
• What do you need

Holly, often grown from American, Chinese, or Japanese holly, ranges in size from 2 to 40 feet (60 cm to 12.1 m), depending on the plant variety and growth pattern. The broadleaf evergreen adorns your landscape with leathery, pointed leaves, white flowers, and red and black berries. Keeping your holly in a bush size range depends on proper pruning practice. Pruning also promotes larger flowers by concentrating the energy of the plant in flower production. While the American holly prefers an abbreviated pruning schedule of once a year, Chinese and Japanese holly bushes can withstand a more vigorous pruning regimen.

Steps

1. 1 Prune healthy holly bushes before they start growing in the second half of winter or early spring. Take care of holly bushes that are sick or broken as soon as you know the bush has health problems.
2. 2 Prepare all the necessary pruning tools, depending on the size of the branches to be pruned. Pruners work well on twigs 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) or smaller in diameter. Scissors with quality blades can cut branches up to 2 inches (5 cm) in size. A saw may be required to trim larger branches and branches.
3. 3 Evaluate the holly bush that you want to prune. Identify any outgrowths that need to be trimmed or completely trimmed to maintain the shape of the bush. Remember the natural shape of the holly when making pruning decisions.
4. 4 You can completely prune thin holly branches and twigs that you want to remove. Just don't cut to the root, unless you want to stop future branch growth on this bush, and the older tree does not regenerate as easily as the new one.
5. 5 Examine branches that only require pruning. Prune directly above the lateral shoot, which is the bud and forms on the side of the branch, not in the middle of the branch or branch.
6. 6 The shape of holly shrubs is achieved by shearing them along the leaf growth surface. Allow them to grow naturally as well.

Tips

• Prune diseased or dying shrubs at the point of healthy growth, removing all diseased parts of the plant.
• Large shrubs rarely require pruning, and healthy shrubs produce hedges that must be pruned once a year to maintain their shape. Prune small shrubs to keep them small and remove long branches.
• Clean pruning tools with denatured alcohol after each use if pruning a dead or diseased bush. Otherwise, keep clean tools when trimming is complete.
• You can prune shrubs during the winter holiday season to use greens and berries in your holiday decorations. If you are currently pruning American holly, refrain from pruning it again at the end of the season to avoid over-pruning.

Warnings

• Refrain from using paint or dressings to cover cut areas of the bush. They can help retain moisture and cause additional plant disease.

What do you need

• Scissors
• Secateurs
• Saw
• Denatured alcohol