Give evergreens a chance before picking up the pruners

Put down the pruners and step away from the evergreens.

As plants start to come out of their slumber, the signs of winter damage begin to appear, and it’s particularly obvious on evergreens, which announce in the form of bright bronze needles that something has gone awry.

This damage comes from a number of causes, including salt spray, dogs and hardiness issues, but the most common cause is winter burn. Drying winter winds coupled with sun exposure can be compounded by dry soil, adding up to unsightly damaged needles and leaves.

It’s natural to want to deal with this damage in spring as part of general yard cleanup, but it’s important to step back and wait before giving up on a tree or shrub or taking other drastic steps while armed with cutting tools. Most evergreens can push new growth and burned foliage will fall off, so keep an eye out for green growth in areas that have suffered winter burn.

Branches can also be checked for viability. Those that are brittle and snap are dead and will not revive, but if a scratch with a fingernail reveals green wood, then the branch is still alive.

It can be hard to know the extent of winter damage on an evergreen until later in spring or even early summer, when new growth will have shown itself if it’s going to. Only then is it safe to pull out the pruners and start removing dead material. Depending on the amount of damage, you might decide the tree or shrub is not salvageable.

If a plant seems destined for the compost, a last-ditch effort of aggressive creative pruning can be employed to see if some lemonade can be made of winter-burn lemons. Perhaps the tree can be coaxed into a living sculpture in the Japanese niwaki style of pruning.

Some evergreens are prone to needle shedding at the interior of branches. This is normal and different from winter burn, which usually starts at branch tips, so gardeners don’t need to do anything.

There is one common evergreen prone to winter damage that it is OK to take the pruners to now. Boxwood with straw-colored or brown leaves — not to be confused with leaves that are a green-bronze color, which is a natural winter color for some varieties — can be lightly pruned to remove damage and, if desired, create a few Swiss cheese-like holes for light to better reach the interior of the plant. This should be done selectively with hand pruners, not with a hedge trimmer. Then, after the first flush of new growth, they can be pruned for shape.

Of course, preventing winter burn by planting less hardy varieties in protected areas, watering in autumn and mulching well is better than trying to fix the problem later, but some winters are worse than others and damage is unavoidable. And when that does happen, it’s best to look away, for a little bit, leave the pruners in the shed and keep fingers crossed until the full extent of the damage is revealed.