Midsummer Pruning Can Do More Harm Than Good – 5 Plants to Never Prune in July

There are always many jobs to do around the garden in July, but admittedly it isn’t always an ideal month for pruning. Knowing what you should and shouldn’t trim this month ensures your plants are protected from harm and prevents you from badly affecting future displays.

It is important to understand which specimens in your garden are plants to prune in July, and which should be left alone. In July, many plants may be under severe heat stress and be badly affected if pruned during a heatwave. You also have spring-flowering plants to avoid as they are busy developing buds for next year, and trimming some evergreens and trees can leave them at risk.

Here we reveal five groups of plants to never prune in July to prevent you from making any pruning mistakes this month. Put all your focus on important tasks like summer deadheading and trimming the right plants with sharp pruning tools this month (like these Felco F5 professional pruning shears on Amazon) and leave the ones mentioned below alone.

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1. Don’t Prune Anything in Extreme Heat

Plants are under a lot of stress during a heatwave, and you don’t want to add to their struggles by pruning.

If you cut plants during periods of extreme warmth, you’ll only add to their stress and put them at increased risk. Any pruning forces the plants to divert energy into new growth at a time when water and resources are already scarce.

When plants are struggling enough, they need to conserve energy to feed what they’ve got, rather than try to sustain fresh, new growth. These new stems and leaves take energy from the rest of the plant and are highly susceptible to drought stress and leaf scorch.

Pruning is a common mistake gardeners make in a heatwave. Leave the tools in the shed and wait until the weather has cooled to do any pruning.

2. Don’t Prune Spring-Flowering Shrubs

The window has closed for the year for pruning spring-flowering shrubs. These beauties put on a stunning display from late winter to late spring. After the show has ended, they quickly start forming the next year’s flower buds.

Knowing when to prune shrubs is pivotal, and for those that flower in spring, you want to trim them straight after they finish flowering. By July, these plants will have started setting buds for next spring, which they form on one-year-old wood.

They need lots of time to develop this new growth for the following spring. If you wait until midsummer to trim, you’ll end up removing the buds, and next spring’s display will be drastically affected.

Spring-flowering shrubs, including the likes of forsythia, lilac, philadelphus, spirea, azalea, and rhododendron, are ones that you never prune in summer, unless you are willing to accept the consequences of your actions.

3. Don’t Prune Summer-Flowering Shrubs

Flowering shrubs that burst into color in the summer will be putting on a stunning display, or are just about to do their annual performance.

Don’t prune common summer bloomers like panicle hydrangea, butterfly bush, crepe myrtle, rose of Sharon, abelia, potentilla, weigela, or summersweet this month.

The only reason to cut back shrubs will be to remove any dead, damaged, or diseased wood to preserve the health of the plant.

What you shouldn’t do this month is any major pruning. If you do, you’ll remove flowers and buds. It’ll ruin this year’s display and also affect their usual blooming cycle.

Summer-flowering shrubs bloom on new wood, and pruning in late winter or early spring encourages stems and buds to carry the summer display.

Why cut off that growth in midsummer? If you want to shape or control the shrub, let it do its thing this summer and prune a little harder during dormancy.

4. Don’t Prune Trees Susceptible to Summer Diseases

Summer pruning is best avoided for some popular trees that are susceptible to more prevalent diseases. Pruning tree branches makes fresh cuts that attract insects, which can carry disease, and these open wounds are also susceptible to bacteria and fungi that are around at the time.

July is not a month to prune oak trees, as they will bleed sap and be at risk of the devastating oak wilt disease. This fungal disease can kill oak trees quickly and is known to be prevalent across the US. Also, pruning elm trees this month puts them at high risk of Dutch elm disease, which has killed millions of elm trees in Europe and North America.

In addition, don’t prune ash trees in summer, as it can lead to an increased risk of infection of ash dieback, and don't prune maple trees in July, as the pathogen that causes sooty-bark disease is more frequent during hot, dry summers.

5. Don’t Prune Conifers in Hot Weather

Conifers go brown for various reasons, including if they are pruned in really hot weather. When the temperature tops 80°F, it is best to avoid trimming conifers like spruce, fir, pine, or arborvitae.

If you do cut any fast-growing conifers during extremely hot and dry weather, the moisture loss and heat shock can turn the needles an unsightly brown. The inner foliage can get scorched when subjected to the sun’s powerful rays during a heatwave. Plus, the conifer will be stressed and much more susceptible to pests, such as aphids and spider mites.

The best time to prune conifers is during late winter or early spring, and you can give some a second trim in late summer, provided the temperature isn’t too hot for them.

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If pruning isn’t your favorite gardening task, have you considered planting more plants that don’t need much trimming to perform at their best?

Some reliable, fuss-free plants never need pruning, including the likes of yucca, barberry, cacti, and succulents. Adding more of these low-maintenance shrubs and plants reduces how much pruning you need to do each year.

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