We moved into our house two years ago in mid-February. A few weeks later, our neighbor knocked on the door holding clippers, a miniature saw, and a book on caring for roses. “It’s pruning time,” she said, gesturing toward my backyard, which is teeming with rose bushes.
I’d never pruned anything before. I watched as she demonstrated the technique on a few bushes.
“Cut off anything that’s dead or diseased, anything that’s skinnier than a pencil, and anything that’s growing inward,” she said, as she snipped, clipped, and sawed a bush down to a few woody stubs.
I spent over a month pruning the roses that spring, examining each plant before making any cuts. Each one felt like a jigsaw puzzle.
Several weeks after her demonstration, my neighbor walked by and saw me hovering over the bush in the front yard. “Don’t worry. You’ll get more confident when you see them grow back this summer.”
I wasn’t so sure. “Where would you cut this one?” I asked tentatively.
But then the next January, I walked through the city rose garden. Those plants, which were gigantic walls of roses in the summer, were all pruned down to just a few woody stems.
So the next February when I returned to the garden with my clipping shears, I had no fear.
It took me less than a week to trim all of the bushes, and they were significantly more, well, pruned this time. And sure enough, by mid-June, my backyard was full of gigantic blooming bushes just like the city rose garden was.
At first pruning felt counter-intuitive to me. I was sure that I would hurt or kill the plants by cutting them back so far.
But as I return to the garden for my third year, the process feels more intuitive and even like an apt metaphor for life.
Sometimes you have to be fearless about cutting out what you don’t need so that you can make space for more things to grow.
This post is for Steady Mom’s Thirty Minute Blog Challenge.
Tepary says
What a fabulous post and a great analogy. My husband is fabulous at pruning in all areas of life, I’m still working on it.
Julia (Color Me Green) says
that’s a nice neighbor that she came over to help without you even asking!
Laura says
I love this! I totally know what you mean. “What do you mean, I’m supposed to cut my liriope down to stubs??” But there’s something about the process that is a) so freeing, and b) so miraculous. How did you grow back from *that*?! And yes, a great metaphor.
Marianne says
A beautiful analogy! I hope we can get a look at those roses when they are in bloom this summer.
amandaginn says
Love it.
Aiming4Simple says
What an excellent reminder of truth. Prioritizing and cutting things out is so hard for me. Yet when I choose this way of life, greater fruitfulness results.
Marianne Aanderbakk says
I wish I had a neighbor like yours to show me how to prune. I live in a condominium and we do have gardeners tending our yard, but even though they are supposed to tend our bushes, they neglegt them so badly. One of my neighbors and I want to do something about it, but we don’t know where to start or how much we can prune all the different plants that we have here.
It is so rewarding working in your garden and I love how you can bring it into your everyday life philosophy too.
Kim says
What a great lesson for me to be reminded of-thank you!
Kelly says
Wonderful lesson. I actually have some roses that need to be pruned (five years here and I’ve never done that) … and there is some other pruning I need to do, too. Thanks for calling my attention to it.
se7en says
That is a great thirty minute post – What a brilliant neighbor, you are blessed!!! WE have been hacking and slaying in the garden and don’t those bushes look a little “naked” … but I know in a short while they will be back to their green and growing selves. Plants are a lot more resilient than we give them credit for!!! You are so right about pruning, it doesn’t just happen in the garden!!!