Stop! Prune These Plants in February, and You’ll Ruin This Year’s Flowers

A Mediterranean garden with brick paving, trees, shrubs, and perennials, including irises, at the Chelsea Flower Show.

Please plan carefully before heading out to prune this month. True, February is a great time to prune many deciduous trees and shrubs, but it is also a bad time to trim spring-flowering trees and shrubs, plus others. To avoid making a mistake you’ll regret, here are seven plants to never prune in February.

It may be tempting to head out on a dry, fine February day to tidy up as many plants as possible in your garden ahead of the new season. But trimming randomly only causes unnecessary issues. You may be robbing yourself of early spring flowers that can lift spirits after a long winter, but you can also place trees and shrubs at risk of harm.