shrubs

Dry riverbed

Every year, I get to work in a dry riverbed, which gets serviced once a year, in winter. That means it’s overgrown and weedy, and requires weeks of heavy work. And it generates lots of green waste.

Many of the shrubs and roses need hard pruning, especially elderberry (Sambucus). Most of the elderberry shrubs have overmature, and very dead, canes. So this season we tried to renovate many of them by flush cutting them at ground level.

Most of the roses were huge, too, so we hit them hard. Overgrown willows and native Indian plums got the same treatment. Because willows have thick stems, we used hand saws and loppers. Always have sharp tools ready for action.

Indian plums are smaller, but the wood is surprisingly tough to cut through.

Dogwood shrub

Now, imagine the great feeling I got, when I saw the dogwood shrub pictured below.

After hacking my way through overgrown shrubs and removing weeds, this dogwood shrub was a revelation because it didn’t require any pruning. Evidently, we did a great job last year, by removing the biggest, dark canes. You can still see the nice gaps we created in the dogwood.

The remaining canes are young and red, which is how it’s supposed to be. It’s a Red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea). Red twig, but only if you maintain it nicely. All I did was snip some of the tops lightly, and then I moved on to other pressing business. Like removing a dead tree, and raking up piles of Big leaf maple drop still sitting on top of ivy.

The loneliest task by far was removing weeds from the rocky bottom of the riverbed. I used my hand tool to remove the weeds, and smiled at the thought of our dogwood shrub. When you do a good job, your task should be easier twelve months later.

If you want to learn more about pruning, check out my YouTube channel, like the videos and subscribe. Then encourage your Proper Landscaping crew to do the same, when you see them.

Prickly shrub

Pyracantha is a nice shrub we frequently see planted in our landscapes. Its red or orange berry clusters are very showy, especially now as I write this in January, 2026. The berries are hard to miss.

The other key feature of this common shrub are its nasty prickles. After all, its common name is fire thorn; and I have lots of bad experiences with it. Once, I got poked in the hand, at the bottom of my thumb and the area swelled up for days.

That’s why Pyracanthas are planted both for their showy berry clusters and for security, to keep criminals and pedos away from your home. I still remember one project where we planted Pyracanthas along the outer walls of an underground parkade to discourage criminals from breaking in.

Pruning

Pyracanthas like to send out shoots so we keep power shearing them to keep them in check. And they can take it. You can, of course, hand prune them, but it’s slower and it requires a decent pair of gloves.

Now, this blog post was inspired by my recent visit to Langley Memorial Hospital in British Columbia, Canada. I had to wait for one hour and sitting inside a hospital didn’t excite me. I tried, but the constant stream of nurses and patients moving by depressed me. So, I went for a walk and that’s where I discovered a few Pyracanthas by the wall.

Don’t rush

As I got closer to the shrubs, I discovered some blemishes that made it clear this was a rush job. You can’t just machine gun the shrub and run away. Do you know why? It looks awful. Great clean up is mandatory.

I discovered cut branches on top of the shrubs that were never removed. They will be easy to spot once they turn completely brown but why wait? Put gloves on and remove them, even if it’s slightly annoying. The prickles make them stick so it can take some effort.

A second problem involves the tips. You can see the shredding because Pyracanthas are woody and they resist power shearing. Thus the shredding. So what do we do about it? Use your snips to clean up the tops. Simply make nice cuts below the shredded tops. That cleans it up nicely.

Remember to do a good job pruning and cleaning. Your Pyracanthas will love you for it!