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.

After a tall tree in my garden developed a split, I had it removed last May (with city approval), revealing a large overgrown shrub. This shrub, a western spicebush (Calycanthus occidentalis), has ...

You’ve got clippers in hand, a shrub in mind and a gleam in your eye. It’s pruning time. But do you have a plan? Before you clip a stem, know your shrub, said Neil Bell, horticulturist for Oregon ...

Do you have a red-twig dogwood whose stems are grayer than red? How about a Forsythia that only blooms near branch ends? Maybe an old lilac with bare, twiggy stems on the bottom half? These are shrub ...

Azaleas should be pruned lightly after they bloom in spring. (Lynn Ketchum) Every gardener owns a pair of clippers, but not everyone knows how to use them for the daunting job of pruning shrubs.

A spring-blooming shrub like forsythia should be pruned after it flowers so that the following year it lives up to its potential. (Neil Bell) You've got clippers in hand, a shrub in mind and a gleam ...