Dormant Tree & Shrub Pruning — The Season of Renewal
Winter pruning allows us to see a plant’s true structure, making every cut precise and purposeful.
Dormant wood heals cleanly, insects and fungi are inactive, and plants conserve energy for spring.
Proper timing means less stress and more resilience for the coming growing season.
The Science of Dormant Pruning
The Ideal Time to Prune Many Trees & Shrubs
Winter is more than a convenient time to prune — it’s a biological window when plants are at rest and wounds can close cleanly. As leaves fall and energy retreats into the roots, the plant’s vascular system slows. Pruning during dormancy reduces stress, limits disease spread, and allows clear visibility of each branch’s structure.
But dormant pruning isn’t about cutting randomly — it’s about reading the plant’s architecture and making precise, physiologically informed cuts.
Subordinate Cuts and Structural Balance
In natural growth, dominant leaders and lateral branches compete for light and resources. Through subordination cuts, we selectively shorten (not remove) competing branches to encourage a single, strong leader or balanced scaffold structure. This maintains photosynthetic capacity while gradually reshaping the tree — a gentler, more sustainable method than heavy heading cuts.
By reducing the vigor of specific limbs, subordination pruning redirects growth where it’s most needed. This technique is especially useful in young trees and in corrective pruning of previously topped or poorly structured specimens.
The Branch Collar: Nature’s Healing Zone
Every proper pruning cut respects the branch collar — the swollen, slightly ridged tissue at the base of a branch. This is not “extra wood” to be trimmed away; it’s a specialized zone of overlapping vascular tissues that form a natural barrier against decay.
When we cut just outside the collar, we preserve the tree’s ability to compartmentalize (CODIT — Compartmentalization of Decay in Trees). The callus tissue that forms around a correct cut closes the wound efficiently, minimizing infection and rot.
Conversely, flush cuts (too close to the trunk) remove this protective tissue, leaving a flat wound that can never fully seal. Stub cuts (too far from the collar) die back, creating entry points for decay organisms.
A well-placed collar cut is a precise biological decision — it aligns with the tree’s internal defense system rather than working against it.
(Photo By Averilp - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147247050)