Great subject.
My list (short):
1. Concord grapevines need annual hard pruning to keep their sprawl in control. I cut all vines back to 2' branches on each trunk, cutting back to a fat, healthy bud. New growth will come from that in spring, and the vines will grow 15' in a season.
2. Ornamental groundcover bamboo (Pleioblastus chino) needs to be whacked back to the ground. It always dies back to the ground anyway when air temperature gets to 10F or so. Even the culms that stay green the whole winter are ratty by the end of the season. Cutting them proactively spares me the task later when there is a lot of other garden work to tackle.
3. Yew needs to get cut back during the winter months. If I prune it during the spring, summer or early fall, it sends out so much new growth that it ends up as big and bushy as it was before I pruned. In December, the tripod ladder comes out and the yews get cut back by one-third. Mine are allowed to grow naturally without being meatballed or topiaried, so pruning involves careful cuts just above a well-foliaged branch so you can't see where the plant was pruned. Rather than shearing yew back, I selectively prune out branches and limbs to give the plant an airy, tree-like form with a full but not top-heavy canopy. At least, that is my goal. From necessity (to allow a care to pass, or clear a path) I've had to do some ungraceful removals that have unbalanced some of the old yews around the house. I'm trying to bring them back to a nice form over time through careful pruning.
4. Sambucus "Aurea." This chartreuse cutie sprawls awkwardly if I don't guide it. This year it sent out some loooong slender branches that I didn't have the heart to cut because the leaves are so darned handsome. So, I waited until it went dormant and have cut back the branches by a third, leaving buds that are pointing in the direction that I want the shrub to grow.
5. New boxwoods are too small to prune, but I may snip a little "from the top" to shape them before heavy, wet snow mishapes them and possibly snaps young branches.

LOL, Cady - my list is way shorter than yours! This is one subject that I will definitely read about but not post about. I think several of you are familiar with my prunaphobia!

George, I do have a question about your cornus alba, though. Do you mean to say you are going to prune it now? By 1/3?? Isn't the whole point to prune it in *late* winter, even earliest spring, and leave it alone now to enjoy the red stems? Or do you mean you will prune off the dead stuff - tips, occasional dead stem - and leave the 1/3 pruning till later?

Now you see why I'm so afraid - because I'm confused as well, lol!
:)
Dee

Dee, I'll leave major Cornus pruning till Feb-March, when it will be pruned by 1/3 in general and probably thinned too. I'll remove dead stuff now, though it could be done in early spring as well.

George, I'm sorry! After you posted again, I went back and re-read your original post, and sure enough, you did say "late winter/early spring of 2007". Oops. Sorry to make you repeat yourself - I should read more carefully before posting.

I'm hoping others contribute to this thread - I could really use this to keep for reference.

Thanks,
Dee

Ego,
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, I'm beyond thrilled that you began this thread there may be hope for this pruning phobic after all. I'm a visual learner but did not want to slow your thread down with photos so I began a pruning journal on blogger where I thought I would one at a time post photos of different shrubs and trees that I will ask every-ones maintenance help and advice. I would like it if all discussion could be here on this thread not on the blog and I will cut and post our discussions into my journal as we go along. kt

Here is a link that might be useful: Pruning journal

One more shrub that could be/should be pruned in winter, Abelia grandiflora.
For me it stays semi-evergreen till about February, but leafing out very late, probably not till end of May.
Basicaly, it doesn't need to be pruned if space allow, except light shearing to prevent self-rooting of branches touching the ground. Shrub have a natural vase shape, but ocassionally produces straight vertical shots which need to be removed completely as they'll look out of place in a middle of a slender arching shrub. Such straight shots has to be removed to the ground (if they occur not from the base but from the middle of the old branch they have to be cut flat, meaning no stub to be left) and the only time when you have access to them will be a winter.
My 'Edward Goucher' blooms on old AND new wood starting from late July till frost, so any other cosmetic pruning could be done at any time till June. All A.grandiflora listed to be hardy for z6, but I've heard that Ed Goucher in particular might be problematic at 5b/6a border.
A.mosanensis is much hardier than A.grandiflora, but it blooms on a new offsets from the old wood in June. Therefore pruning should be done right after the bloom only.

I do "prune" my red and yellow twig dogwoods a bit at the beginning of December when I need some color in my windowboxes and winter pots. I usually cut out brownish/gray stems that are old and there are usually young and therefore brightly colored stems on that branch to use in my outdoor arrangements. Otherwise, I also wait until early spring to prune.

Nice thread George. I'd like to "see" how you prune your Hydrangea paniculata shrubs into a tree form in the spring. I have a few cultivars, and I think I might like to tree up one or two to gain more ground space.

Monique, I already have Kuyshu and Tadiva formed into trees, so the main task there is to to shape crown into symmetrical form.
Basicaly creating tree process is very simple.
Chose the strong vertical leader, stake it and cut everything else below the level where you want to start forming the crown. Depending on a habit of the cultivar (PG is arching, Kyushu is upright, etc) you have to decide how high you want your tree start branching. Usually growers 'clean' trunk to 4-5' for arching cultivars and to 3-4' for upright ones. Takes 3 to 4 year to form a decent 'tree'.
'Two-tier fountain' is a combo of shrub and tree form.
Suitable for arching cultivars only.
This picture of Limelight (trained for 2 years) might give you idea of what I'm doing:
{{gwi:1020565}}

Here I have a vertical 5' tall trunk where all sprouts from the trunk has to be cleaned untill it will be woody enough and stop producing any side shots.
Contrary, at the bottom, anything going vertical or at the sharp angle up have to be removed and only arching stems have to be left.
Eventually there should be two tiers of arching stems.
Probably need another couple of years of selective pruning to be what it ment to be.

On a separate note.
In previous post about Abelia I made a factual mistake by saying, 'Shrub have a natural vase shape..'
Natural shape of shrub is rather 'fountain' and 'vase' it would become if you let those vertical shots to be.

Ego..I have a pruning question for you. I have an Abutilon 'Huntington Pink' that I bought for outdoor containers last summer. I brought it in the house and it is doing fine. I happened to get a book out of the library called 'The Jewel Box Garden' where I saw a photo of this Abutilon in an outdoor container looking exceptionally pretty to me, trained as a tree. So I went back and looked at mine and it is growing in every direction. Maybe 5/6 stems branching out and no central leader to speak of. There is one branch that is almost vertical, but I would have to cut off about 6 other branches, which would also create some unattractive knobs at the base. All of the branches are coming out at about ground level. I don't suppose I could change it to a tree form at this point? Since it is growing year round outdoors to indoors, I wondered if I did prune it, when is the best time? Sorry, I don' t have a photo, but maybe after Christmas. [g]

Thanks :-)

Hi all
pm2
After you pruned banchs with your sharp bypass type pruner, use sharp knif to dress pruning wounds and apply tree dressing for bonsai. If you do that, pruning wound are not going to be "knoby" Many extinion service infor or pruing book said tree dressing is not useless. But it will work better with tree dressing. when prune in just befor tree start grow is best time to prune.

Often we prune year round because we need to feed family except summer. there is best time to prune, good time to prune, ok to prune, and not to prune. Our convinience, economy reason are not always suit for tree or shurb pruning timing.

Cady climbed tree with tree sadle and rope.
She is not young chick but good looking ^^.
I asked Cady if you want to climb tree with tree sadle and rope. first 10 minutes or so she stragled. 15 minutes later she is half way up on large oak tree.
You can do it too ^^.

ego
I have not apply growth regulator on abelea. Have you ever consider to use growth regulator? or root pruing.
kyushu is southern part of Japan . most of are are zone 8 to 9 . your pg is ready to air layer for nice potted
plant^^.

about 8 years ago my customer's daughter marrying to son of congress man, they were haveing wedding Sep 12 which is too late for hydrengia season. Mother of bride asked me if I can make it bloom around wedding date. I told her that I don't garantee but will try . I root pruned and after root prune carefuly start feeding, To make story short, I couln'd make it bloom on wedding day but 3 weeks late, End of September and early October hydrengia started to bloom . May be, Just may be ,If I root pruned earlyer I could make it on wedding day( make it bloom ). They invited me the wedding.

There are some trick of trade to make it work better.^^

Happy new year to every one. You guys are wonderfull.
yama

yama...

Good morning.. :-) Waiting for the kids to get up to open presents and checking in to this nice surprise. Thank you so much for directions on pruning my abutilon, yama. The more I have looked at it, the more I think I can cut it back to one branch like a tree. I can single out the one branch that will be just right. Right now it is in a growth spurt and is putting out all new leaves. It is looking healthier than it did outside all summer for some reason, which makes me wonder if I had it in too much sun when it was outside or I had it in a container with a number of other plants, which could have been the problem too. I have no reason to prune it now, so I think I will wait until it is time to put it outside again and repot it and prune it at the same time. I hope that will work out. Thank you for pointing me toward the tree dressing. I wouldn't of thought of that.

:-) pm2