Proper pruning on a tree enhances the beauty of almost any tree and shrub in the landscape, while inadequate pruning can ruin or greatly reduce its landscape potential. In most cases, it is better not to prune than to do it incorrectly.
In nature, plants spend years with little or no pruning, but man can ruin what nature has created. By using inadequate pruning methods, healthy plants often weaken or deform.
In nature, each plant is eventually pruned in some way. It may be a simple matter of low branches being shaded by higher branches resulting in the formation of a collar around the base of the branch that restricts the flow of moisture and nutrients. Eventually the leaves wither and die and the branch falls in a wind or storm. Often, the new tender branches of small plants are broken by wild animals in their search for food.
In the long term, a plant that grows naturally assumes the shape that allows it to make the best use of light in a given place and climate. All one needs to do to appreciate the ability of a plant to adapt to a place is to walk into a desert and see the beauty of natural plants in
Pruning, like any other skill, requires knowing what is being done to achieve success. The old idea that anyone with a chain saw or a pruning saw can be a landscape pruner is far from the truth.
Every year more trees are killed or ruined by inadequate pruning than by pests. Remember that pruning is the removal or reduction of certain parts of the plant that are not necessary, that are no longer effective or that are useless to the plant. It is made to provide additional energy for the development of flowers, fruits and branches that remain in the plant.