PRUNING TOOLS

By: Kevin D. Starr
County Extension Director
N.C. Cooperative Extension Service

Late winter, although still a little ways off, is a time when a lot of pruning gets done on landscape plants, grapevines, and fruit trees. There are certainly exceptions like the spring-flowering shrubs. We normally wait until after the blooming season to prune those.

While we’re waiting for late winter to arrive, there are some things you can do in preparation for pruning time. I suspect a lot of us could benefit from either cleaning up and sharpening our pruning tools or maybe even buying new and better ones.

There are three basic types of tools with which gardeners do most of their pruning. These are hand pruning shears, long-handled pruning shears (commonly called loppers), and pruning saws.
Hand pruning shears are what we use for cutting small-diameter wood. They come in two types—anvil and scissors. With the anvil type, the cut is made by a blade which comes down on a flattened service (the anvil). The scissors type is just like its namesake and has two cutting blades. I recommend the scissors type. You can spend a lot or a little on a pair of pruning shears but you really tend to get what you pay for. If you do much pruning with a pair of cheap shears, you’ll likely be ready to dig deeper into your wallet to buy a good pair.

If you have wood that’s a little too big to cut with hand shears, loppers are the answer. They have the same blade options as hand shears. These long-handled pruners give you a lot of leverage for making larger cuts.

The pruning saw is the preferred tool when the wood is too big to cut with loppers. Saws come in various styles. One type is the bow saw where a straight blade is held in a bow-shaped handle. I have one of these myself. I like it but it’s not good in tight spaces. That’s where a curved-blade pruning saw will come in handy.

There are other tools you may wish to buy depending on what kind of pruning job you need to do. If you need to prune a hedge to obtain a formal look, hedge shears are very helpful. However, people tend to overuse these and prune most of their shrubs into unnatural round shapes. It takes more time to leave plants looking natural after they’re pruned but it’s worth the effort.

A few gardeners may want to consider purchasing a pole pruner. This tool usually has a set of shears and a saw at the end of the pole. The shears are operated by a rope. Pole pruners can be handy but are probably going to be seldom used by most folks.
If you have questions about pruning, please feel free to contact me. Our number here at Cooperative Extension is 704-736-8452.