Stop! Prune These Plants in February, and You’ll Ruin This Year’s Flowers

Get clear on what not to prune this month, plus when it should be done instead

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Please plan carefully before heading out to prune this month. True, February is a great time to prune many deciduous trees and shrubs, but it is also a bad time to trim spring-flowering trees and shrubs, plus others. To avoid making a mistake you’ll regret, here are seven plants to never prune in February.

It may be tempting to head out on a dry, fine February day to tidy up as many plants as possible in your garden ahead of the new season. But trimming randomly only causes unnecessary issues. You may be robbing yourself of early spring flowers that can lift spirits after a long winter, but you can also place trees and shrubs at risk of harm.

Forsythia

A yellow flowering forsythia covered in a layer of snow

(Image credit: Getty Images/ullstein bild )

Forsythia is one of the earliest spring-flowering shrubs, bursting into life with vivid yellow flowers on bare stems from mid-February onwards.

If you grow forsythia, you do need to prune it to keep it productive and prevent a congested shrub with a bare base and flowers only high up at the top. But to achieve that, and get a display of bright blooms to enjoy each spring, you must prune at the right time.

February is not the time to prune forsythia. You want to do it after flowering, as forsythia blooms on last year’s growth.

Once the flowers start to fade, it is time to head out and trim. Doing it in late winter only removes the wood carrying this year’s buds.

Lilac

A pink lilac flower on a shrub

(Image credit: Getty/Christophe Lehenaff)

The sweet scent of lilac flowers is a joy in spring. Understanding when to prune lilacs means yours remains in top shape, and you get a glorious display of those fragrant flowers to enjoy.

Lilacs bloom on old wood; take pruning shears to the plant now, and you’ll remove all the flower buds that are waiting to burst into life when the temperatures rise. Instead, hold fire and prune lilacs within a month of the blooming ending in late spring or early summer.

As for how to prune lilacs, deadhead old flowers, remove any dead, diseased, or damaged stems, and trim lightly to achieve the height and shape that works for your space. If you want to renovate older lilacs, remove a third of the oldest stems each year.

Flowering Quince

The small red blooms of a Japanese flowering quince, also called chaenomeles

(Image credit: Future)

A flowering quince (Chaenomeles sp.) blooms in early spring with delicate, cup-shaped flowers in shades of red, pink, and white. The shrub offers an apple blossom-like display that stands out gloriously against glossy green foliage.

The best-looking flowering quinces are kept compact and well-shaped through annual pruning done after the year’s blooms fade. It keeps the shrub neat and attractive, and gives it lots of time to develop new growth over the season to carry next year’s flower buds.

You can heavy prune a flowering quince in winter to rejuvenate an older, out-of-control shrub. However, doing so in one go robs you of any flowers to enjoy in spring.

A better alternative is to remove a few of the oldest branches each year. This encourages new wood and still allows you a display of flowers.

Redbud

hummingbird and redbud flowers

(Image credit: Supercaliphotolistic / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images)

Redbud trees (Cercis) are a unique sight in spring as their stems, branches, and trunks are covered in pink or white flowers.

It makes a real statement tree as they are among the first to bloom each year. And the spring blooms make it a great tree for wildlife, as pollinators and hummingbirds are attracted to it for pollen early in the season.

Redbuds are low-maintenance and don’t need lots of pruning each year, except for removing dead, damaged, or diseased branches and some light shaping. The best time to prune a redbud tree is after the dramatic flowering display is done for the year.

Prune too early in late winter, or too late into late spring or early summer, and you will remove wood and developing buds that ought to carry next spring’s dramatic display. It is advisable to trim lightly with redbuds, and never prune more than a third of the branches in one season.

Flowering Cherry

pink cherry blossom on a prunus 'Kanzan' tree

(Image credit: Jacky Parker Photography/Getty Images)

An ornamental cherry is certainly one of the best trees for spring blossom. It puts on a spectacular show when their branches are laden in pink or white flowers. While famed for their spring display, flowering cherries also have fiery fall color and some have unusual bark too.

The stunning performance occurs in early to mid-spring, but it is often fleeting, lasting for no longer than two or three weeks. If you were to head out and prune a cherry tree in February, this display would be greatly reduced. Therefore, any pruning should be done after the flowering has finished, in early or midsummer.

It is also not advisable to do any pruning of cherry trees during winter due to the risk of silver leaf. This fungal disease is a problem for cherries and it gets into the trees through pruning cuts. Pruning cherries on a dry summer’s day reduces the chance of infection.

Old Wood Hydrangeas

Annabelle hydrangea in winter

(Image credit: Alamy/Freeman Keats)

Hydrangeas are not all pruned the same way, and knowing when to prune hydrangeas means understanding if your shrub blooms on old or new wood. Before you do anything with hydrangeas in February, make sure you know which category any in your yard fall into.

To put it simply, you can prune hydrangeas that flower on new wood in February, such as panicle or smooth hydrangea varieties, but any that bloom on old wood are plants to never prune in February and should ideally be left untouched this month. That includes bigleaf (both mophead and lacecap types), mountain, and oakleaf hydrangeas.

Pruning old wood bloomers risks removing all this year’s flower buds, which were formed in summer and early fall and waited all winter to burst forth. Even deadheading old blooms in February leaves these buds at the mercy of late winter frosts.

You can deadhead hydrangeas in warmer climates, where the risk of frost has passed, but elsewhere, leave it until next month, as those old flower heads, while they may not look much, are protecting the delicate buds from winter harm.

Evergreens in Cold Regions

A fluffy yew dome growing in a gravel border alongside a stone path

(Image credit: Future/Jacky Hobbs)

Evergreens are plants to never prune in February if you garden in colder climates, when the task is best left until after the last frost for your region.

This is especially important if you are doing any heavy pruning of evergreen shrubs, including yew, boxwood, holly, and arborvitae.

Winter pruning is always risky with evergreens, as they don’t necessarily have the food supplies required to regrow their foliage quickly. Where they do produce new growth, that is at risk of being damaged by frosts and icy winter winds, which leaves the shrub susceptible to pests and diseases.

It is best to prune evergreen shrubs in mid-spring, once they have started growing again for the new season. As they are actively growing, it means they can heal pruning wounds quickly, and the scars are covered by the new stems and foliage.

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Drew Swainston
Drew Swainston
Content Editor

Drew has worked as a writer since 2008 and was also a professional gardener for many years. As a trained horticulturist, he worked in prestigious historic gardens, including Hanbury Hall and the world-famous Hidcote Manor Garden. He also spent time as a specialist kitchen gardener at Soho Farmhouse and Netherby Hall, where he grew vegetables, fruit, herbs, and cut flowers for restaurants. Drew has written for numerous print and online publications and is an allotment holder and garden blogger. He is shortlisted for the Digital Gardening Writer of the Year at the 2025 Garden Media Guild Awards.