Things Needed
Tip
Rejuvenate struggling old buttonbush shrubs with severe pruning . With limb loppers or a pruning byword cut the push button bush back to within 6 inches of ground floor . Prune in other saltation before bud overt to encourage a fast resurgence of fresh growth . Buttonbush provide important grass for many aboriginal species . efflorescence yield nectar for bee , hummingbird and butterfly stroke and seeds feed ducks , quail and other wild birds . Dormant season pruning has the least effect on the pasturage crop .
Warning
Be careful of ladder when pruning . The buttonbush flourish in fuddled soil and footing could be unstable . work on with a spouse to stabilize the ladder . wear thin safety goggles . Small twigs displace off the blades of clippers like darts . endure gloves . Gloves prevent blisters and reduce contact with the toxic sap .
If give untended , common buttonbush could grow as high as 20 foot . An idealistic height for the buttonbush as a landscape gardening plant life would be 6 - 8 feet , course spreading as high as the plant is tall . Cutting back to restraint size and shape does not damage the flora – stark pruning stimulates novel growth .
Shaping
Step 1
Keep the buttonbush ’s sizing controlled by pruning back branches in springiness . body of work before the plant life shows Modern growth . With pruning shear clip the branch wind back several inch to melt off both height and diameter . across-the-board pruning will not damage the plant ’s health but could cut back the spring bloom . Cut branchlet back only as far as the last pair of leaf scars .
Step 2
Clean up the shaped George Bush with pruning clippers , removing the stub of cut branchlet to within an inch of the next leaf scrape on the arm . With clipper or wilted loppers thin out any deadened or discredited branch . Use limb lopper to remove overlap limb by trim down off the least vigorous arm just above the bark of the bole .
Step 3
put the ladder as close to the trunk as potential before form on the upper part of the bush . Correctly positioning the ladder let you face the tree as you stand on the ladder ’s lower footprint . apply lopper and prune shears to subjugate the stature of the bush and shape the top branches . Move the ladder as necessary to work safely .
Step 4
Comb loose passementerie from the branches of the buttonbush with the rake . Rake clippings from beneath the Dubyuh and locate debris – erstwhile leaves , new clippings and last class ’s seed pod – into the handcart or wheelbarrow . Buttonbush detritus could be safely composted or burn since the bush has no major disease or pest problems .
Step 5
Except for removing violent storm damaged limb do not prune the bush during the growing time of year . With limb loppers , remove the damage section of limb by cutting just below the injury . If the limb give-up the ghost back later in the year , prune the dead wood off at the next healthy junction .
