When To Prune In Central Florida, And When To Leave It Alone
· 5 min read · Summit Grounds
Northern pruning advice is everywhere and almost none of it applies here. We do not get a true dormancy, our growth pushes nearly year-round, and the wrong cut in the wrong month invites more problems than it solves.
Flowering shrubs: after they bloom, not before
Azaleas, gardenias, and camellias set next season’s buds shortly after this season’s flowers drop. Prune them in winter and you are cutting off the flowers you were waiting for. The window is narrow: within about six weeks of the last bloom.
Oaks: December through February
Structural work on live oaks belongs in the cooler months, when the tree is least active and when oak wilt is least likely to travel. It is also the only sensible time to be doing risk reduction, which is to say well before storm season rather than during it.
Palms: less than you think
A palm should keep every green frond it has. Removing anything above horizontal starves the plant and produces the narrowed trunk that never recovers. Take the brown, leave the green, and ignore anyone who offers a hurricane cut.
The most common pruning mistake we are called to correct is not a bad cut. It is a cut made in the wrong month.
If you remember nothing else: flowering shrubs right after bloom, oaks in winter, palms barely at all. Everything else can wait for someone to look at it properly.