Angiosperms are everything that bryophytes, pteridophytes and gymnosperms aren’t. They’re flowered, fruitful and produce seeds too. You’re bound to have a handful of these spread out throughout your garden, because who doesn’t like flowers and fruit.
Just like with any other plant type there are right ways and wrong ways to prune them. So, let’s go through the right way of doing things so you can go into your garden knowing exactly what you’re doing.
Pruning Monocotyledons
Monocotyledons, better known as monocots, are easy to tell apart from dicotyledons if you know what to look for. And this will really help you prune them the right way. The two things to look out for are the number of floral parts and the growth of the leaf veins.
So, monocots have petals that grow in threes, unlike dicotyledons which have petals that grow in fours or fives. And their leaf veins grow parallel, unlike dicotyledons which have leaf veins that run in a netlike formation.
Monocot leaves often grow in a sheath formation that surrounds the trunk of the plant. This makes it easy to identify the old leaves and the newer ones. You can easily prune the older ones by pulling the lower ones downwards to unsheath them.
Some of the leaves may not come apart easily so don’t be surprised if you have to apply a little pressure. Pulling off old dying leaves help to rejuvenate the monocot and help make space for new leaves to grow through.
Pruning Dicotyledons
Dicotyledons, more commonly known as dicots, have a great plant structure that means they have a superior healing function. So, what does this mean for you? Well basically it means that you don’t have to worry too much about over pruning or pruning wrong.
Unlike monocots, dicots actually respond really well to pruning. If you cut off a stem, new shoots will grow from the pruned section. Monocots don’t have this ability so there’s definitely an added freedom to growing and planting dicots in your garden.
Because of the shapes and sizes of monocots and dicots you have the option to try out many different pruning tools. From pruning shears like the Alpha Six pruning shears to the larger loppers. You can still use your hands to prune too, for deadheading and removing the odd dead or dying leaf that doesn’t require too much effort.
Pruning angiosperms allows you to put a lot of pruning techniques to use as they come in so many shapes and sizes. It’s the perfect way to master multiple pruning styles and have a great time in the process. So, what are you waiting for? Get pruning!