A: The hesitation in your gut was right! Nope. No pruning and no fertilizing these plants this time of year, and here’s why.

Both pruning and fertilizing signal a plant to put on new growth. This late in the season, we don’t want that to happen because tender, new growth may not ‘harden off’ enough in time for a freeze. Then parts of the plant will appear dead, and that leaves the plant more vulnerable in cold weather.

A couple of easy rules for remembering when to fertilize and prune.

Plants take up fertilizers most efficiently when they are actively growing. This applies to grass, trees, shrubs... everything! Save money by not fertilizing at the wrong time. Labels explain everything, including timing and amounts.

And timing out the task of pruning, my friend Dr. Allan Armitage says it best. “I’m going to write a book about pruning. It’ll have four words... ‘cut back after flowering’.” This is the case with all flowering shrubs, from azaleas and rhododendrons, to hydrangeas and camellias! The best time to cut them back is within a month or two after they’ve finished flowering, because they begin to set new buds for next year’s flowers pretty quickly.

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