Selective Hand Trimming or Hedge Trimmers: Do Plants Care (landscape, leaves, fast)

[rdflk]

Basically my questions is do the PLANTS care whether you selectively hand trim or use hedge trimmers.

For more than a decade I've selectively hand trimmed my flowering shrubs. I did that too with my dozen boxwoods but I keep them in a square shape and it took hours. Then I discovered the hedge trimmer yeah! I just didn't want to take HOURS over DAYS, using hand ciippers But I read somewhere years ago the hedge trimmers tear up the plant and make it look hacked -- that hand trimming is better.

Well a little bit of info is a dangerous thing so all these years I've hand trimmed.

Well today my landscaper asked if I wanted him to trim my weigela. I said sure why not. Well NOT thinking, I thought he'd hand trim it. Duh, he went and got his hedge trimmer. So of course I gasped and said I always to it by hand. He said "no, this is OK." I ask if it's bad for the plant he said "no it will come back just fine." He's been doing work for me for years I let him do it.

Of course, it doesn't look like what it does when I'm done taking off a branch here and there. The entire shrub is trimmed down....blunt cuts all over. It doesn't look hacked or destroyed or anything like that, I've just never seen it looking like this.

So have I been wasting my time all these years? Could I have just used the hedged trimmers and hacked away. OK, of course "hacking at it" is a bit too strong. But that was the first time "my baby" had been hedge trimmed after being selectively (lovingly) hand trimmed a branch here and there since being planted a decade ago.

I'm HOPING to hear that at least my hand trimming and shaping has made a difference in 'training' the shrub.

But I can take it, be honest.....I've been a sucker, right?...I could have, and should have, been using the hedgers from trim number one, right?. Because I also hand trim my euonymus and my fire power nandina. And using my hedge trimmers I could be done in half an hour! Yeah

[azoria]

They're your bushes you can prune them any way you want.

Personally, I hate power hedge trimmers, they just chew the shrubbery to bits. And when they get into woodier parts of the plant which don't cut easily, the hedge trimmer twists the wood and damages the branches.

I think they're best used on plants you don't care much about, like boxwoods. If somebody hacked up my nice weigela with those things, I'd be pizzed.

[Hemlock140]

It may look ugly for a few weeks because you are shredding some of the leaves that stay on the bush, but other than a slightly more higher threat of disease, it won't hurt it. It does save a lot of time when shaping for a bushy appearance.

[ArkansasSlim]

Bottom line - your plants couldn't care less and after they leaf back out you will never know the difference, but as stated above it is not what you see when you give them your own tender loving care.
One problem with hedge trimmers is that they usually are not kept sharp. Most people (as with the one who trimmed your plants) thinks that as long as the trimmer chews through the stuff, that's all that matters.

[rdflk]

Well, if the PLANTS don't care...I guess I'll be hedge trimming them from now on. The time it will save will be INCREDIBLE! So much for the "care" I've given them all these years.....oh well.

[mmyk72]

I think problem with power trimmers is that type of cutting encourages leaf growth only on the exterior of the bushes (like a shell). Eventually, you get a hollow plant structure. While hand trimming if you go in deep where you want to encourage branching out will allow more interior growth.

So I also think power trimming is ok for plants that will come back fast and you don't care about (like boxwoods). But you can go back in afterwards with a hand pruner and make deeper cuts here and there.

[luv4horses]

Plants do care. Using a trimmer will shear the tips of the branches/leaves. This has the potential to leave shredded ends. When the ends are shredded they are more likely to either dry out or become infected by bacteria or fungi. Some plants are very tolerant to this abuse. Others are not.

When you use hand clippers each cut is very precise and does minimal damage, so healing is quicker and the likelihood of tip damage is much less. The result is better.