Cass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning: What, When, Where, and How to Prune for a More Beautiful Garden

Cass Turnbull has been pruning and teaching about it for probably 20 years, and the book represents the voice of all that experience and skill. Translated, that means she not only knows how to prune, but she can also teach others to do it. She started Plant Amnesty, a Seattle-based nonprofit devoted to stopping the senseless mutilation through mal-pruning of shrubs and trees. People in the Northwest know her and love her; in my opinion, she deserves to become well known in the rest of the country.

Cass provides lots of details but they are very easy to understand. The book contains thorough instructions (several PAGES each) on pruning a commonly-used landscaping shrubs and vines. See the book's table of contents to find out if the plants you want to prune are included.

I think the book's subtitle should be "Pruning for the Real World." I find that the key impressive feature of this book is that it integrates the theoretical "selective heading cut" and "thinning cut" type info with the real-life experience of crawling around in shrubs and deciding what to cut. In the real world, shrubs that should never be sheared are cut into geometric forms regularly, or, people get busy and neglect their shrubs and then try to figure out what to do about them.. In the real world, owners of such shrubs often don't know how to deal with the result. In the real world people make pruning errors and don't know how to fix them. Or, even though you understand how to make the cuts, you don't understand WHAT to cut and why for aesthetic improvement. The book addresses those situations, and explains how to undo pruning messes or gradually rejuvenate overgrown shrubs. The concept of the pruning budget - how much you can prune without stimulating ugly and fast regrowth -- is explained and defined for many of the shrubs in the book.

By the way, Cass also has a sense of humor which is amply displayed in the text and the illustrations. This subject doesn't have to be dry and boring!

The biggest mystery for me of pruning an unknown shrub is "How will it respond?" It's like a dark tunnel with no light at the end when you don't know from firsthand experience what will happen when you cut a branch off. Quirks of individual shrubs are explained (squiggly regrowth on rhododendrons, the tendency of dogwood and Viburnum to sucker/water sprout very easily). Problems you will encounter and decisions you will have to make are covered, and improving the way a shrub looks without drastically cutting it back are explained.

I find myself reading and re-reading the information-packed sections to glean more information. I think the unique thing about this book is that you gain something of the many years of Cass's experience rather than a brief formula. Basic information plus more subtle points are included. So many war stories are included that I found it quickly boosted my judgment and confidence in pruning.

In future editions, I would like to see an even more detailed section on tools with even more about important features and maintenance of more saws, pruners, shears and loppers. Cass also gives burning bush (Euonymus alata) high marks, I disagree, since it is proving to be very invasive in the Northeast and is ruining some of our lovely forests, I would like to see it on the "Not recommended - one pruning cut at the base" list. On topics that have been covered extensively and that are said to have many subtleties, such as rose or Clematis pruning, Cass simplifies rather than complicates, and some may desire more details than are provided. Minor quibbles.

I don't think anyone who buys this book will be sorry. If you are also pruning many unusual shrubs, buy an additional "1001 shrubs" type of pruning book as an adjunct. This one will build your pruning prowess fast; the other will give you little tips on specific plants that will make much better sense once you've read and used Cass Turnbull's Guide to Pruning. See the online table of contents for the trees and shrubs that are covered. Although this book is published by a Northwest US regional publisher, most of the plants covered in the book are grown also in the Northeast (and the book is actually intended to be useful all over the US). In all, a very usable and readable book at a very reasonable price.