The French Poodle Connection

By Kirti Mathura

Curator of Shrubs and Scott McMahon, Curator of Cacti; Arborist

You’ve seen them around town–the shrubs in the medians and common areas pruned into little balls and cylinders. We find bushes made into biscuits, olive trees with pom-poms swaying in the breeze, and leucophyllums disguised as gumdrops. There has to be an underlying conspiracy here, because no matter where you go, they’re pruned the same. Is there some kind of supreme law telling landscape crews what to do, and yet why is it that none of the homeowners we talk to like what’s being done to their plants?

The same atrocities are being committed against our noble desert trees. Over-watering and fertilizing leads to rapid growth and soft weak wood that is just waiting for the monsoon winds to snap off the branches. Coinciding with this is the pervasive phenomenon of liontailing, or the removal of excessive numbers of interior branches, which forces the remaining branches to grow outward. These branches become abnormally long and heavy, prone to fractures and breakage.

Poodle cuts, pom-poms, lollipops, liontailing–who thinks this is cool? Trees don’t, because too much of the trunk and too many branches are exposed to the sun during the hottest time of the year, making them susceptible to burn damage. With proper infrequent but deep watering of established desert trees, we greatly reduce the need for pruning. When pruning is necessary, a balanced removal of no more than 25% of the canopy will leave the tree in a healthy state. Use clean sharp loppers and hand pruning saws.

Shrubs don’t think it’s cool either, because a shell of dense sprouts on the tips of branches develops, leaving their interiors dark, inactive, and leafless. Maybe it’s an Old World concept that plants have to be manipulated by people in order to look acceptable. Maybe the French have used subliminal messages to brainwash our maintenance crews. Or, perhaps it is simply the universal ownership of mechanized hedge trimmers and pole pruners trapping their users into the “property maintenance syndrome”–since they have these neat toys, they are going to use them on something in the landscape each and every week.

Shrubs have a tough life here in the low desert. We make survival even more challenging with improper pruning. No matter the reason for shearing shrubs, the effects of poodling are far-reaching in regards to the health of our landscape plants. Shearing stimulates the development of unnaturally profuse new growth at the branch tips. This excessive foliage requires more water than would be needed if the plant were not sheared. The abuse also impedes the development of plant food production through photosynthesis, since great amounts of active leaf tissue are frequently removed, making it more difficult for the plant to absorb the necessary quantities of moisture and nutrients from the soil.

Aside from the hardships a shrub must endure when sheared, you too will be losing out, in many cases, when you choose this maintenance approach. We often include shrubs in our landscapes to enjoy their brilliant blooms. Many develop flower buds on the previous season’s growth. If you shear, especially at the wrong time of the year, you can considerably diminish, or even altogether eliminate, the colorful performance for an entire season.

If poodle shearing is bad, just how should we approach the maintenance of our shrubs? To begin with, if we do our homework before even digging a planting hole, we will choose a shrub that will fit the space available. In many cases, no pruning will be necessary except the occasional clipping of a dead branch. Most shrubs have a pleasing form if allowed to grow without manipulation.

If a shrub is unwisely placed where its mature stature doesn’t fit in the landscape, pruning may be necessary to reduce its size. With clean sharp hand clippers or loppers, cut back a third of the longest branches toward the base of the shrub annually. This will reduce the overall size but leave the shrub with a natural-looking form. Unhealthy dense foliage production at stem tips will not be triggered. This method may seem time consuming, but in the long run it will not require any more hours than would shearing every few weeks.

If you would like to turn over a new leaf with a shrub that has been abusively sheared for some years, you can try stumping it back to a base of one to one and a half feet when it is coming into a new growth cycle. It will regenerate, with fresh new stems emerging from the remaining branch stumps, and fill in with a natural looking form. Many types of shrubs will respond well to this rejuvenation pruning in these extreme cases.

Allow your landscape plants to keep the dignity they were germinated with. Shrubs are not sheep or poodles, so stop shearing them. Trees are not lions, so stop giving them tails.  Toss the electric hedge shears and pole pruners. Taking a bit of time to think about how our landscape plants grow and function can be our best tool in landscape maintenance.  Encourage neighbors and landscape crews to change the way they approach trees and shrubs; the results will speak for themselves. Plants will be healthier, and less yard waste will be going to the landfills.

If you are truly interested in having geometric shapes in your landscape, why not invest in some garden art?