9 Plants You Should Cut Back Severely in March

For many of us in the lower 48 states, spring gardening starts in March. Besides fertilizing and tending to our beds, we’re busy with cutting back last year’s growth. This is an important maintenance step for some plants and forgetting to do so may affect this year’s yield. 

Spring pruning is a chance to organize your plants’ new twigs and shape. It improves aeration and helps condense fruit sugars. It’s also a time to cut away diseased and unproductive parts of your garden. 

Let’s dive into the 9 plants you should cut back severely in March. You’ll encourage beautiful new growth to start the gardening season and keep your plants healthy. 

Alaska Shasta Daisy

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Munstead Lavender

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Red Seedless Grape

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Wine Grapes

	botanical name Vitis vinifera
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 15-50’
	hardiness zones 6-10

For me, there’s nothing more satisfying than taking my pruners to grape vines and preparing them for the new season. Wine grapes, Vitis vinifera, are widely grown around the world for their fruit, which winemakers use to produce grape wine. If left unchecked, these fruiting vines would climb a skyscraper. 

Cutting grape vines back in winter and early spring helps concentrate growth in the remaining canes and cordons. As the plants grow, they shoot out new foliage in these concentrated areas. Their fruits will produce sweeter fruit, which makes wines with higher alcohol and body. 

Make your cuttings before bud break, which usually happens from late March to April. In regions like Northern Michigan, this can be as late as late April or early May. Remove suckers around the base of your plants as the spring growing season progresses. As always, use disinfected clippers or pruners to prevent disease transmission. 

Forsythia

	botanical name Forsythia spp.
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 2-10’
	hardiness zones 5-9

Forsythias are beautiful blooming perennials that benefit from a good trimming after their blooms. Depending on where you live, this is usually in March or April. 

These plants prepare for next year’s blossoms shortly after they bloom. If you make the mistake of pruning them in mid-summer, fall, or winter, you’ll reduce the amount of next season’s blooms. 

These perennials grow quickly and can handle a good pruning. Aim to cut back roughly ⅓ of the foliage shortly after the blooms start to fade away. Heavy pruning keeps them maintained and organized and encourages fuller new growth. 

Russian Sage

	botanical name Salvia yangii
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 3-5′
	hardiness zones 4-9

Russian sage is a beautiful but fast-growing plant that benefits from cutting back in spring. The more mature and healthy your plant is, the more you can trim away in March. 

It produces flowers on new wood in spring, so cutting back old growth helps it bloom. You can cut it back severely without harming it. Once you reduce its size, you’ll enjoy fresh new stems and radiant flowers. 

This plant makes excellent flowering hedges and barriers to your garden. It attracts beneficial pollinators like bees and hummingbirds. Other than trimming it in spring, it’s incredibly easy to grow and maintain.  

Lavender 

	botanical name Lavandula spp
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-3’
	hardiness zones 5-9

Lavender plants respond well to being cut back shortly after the last hard freeze, usually around March in most of the U.S. Pruning your lavender plants encourages them to put on new growth, especially in their flowers. It’s the best way to get super aromatic foliage and condense their essential oils. 

Leave the woody parts alone and only trim the green parts of your plants. Once you see your plant put on its first blossom in spring, take out clean pruners and give it a good trimming. Try to cut back at least half of its new green growth. Aim to cut just above the woody crown. 

After summer, you’ll want to give your plants another good trimming. This is another good time to prune down to the woody crowns. Go ahead and dry the flowers and use them in cooking or aromatic decorations. 

English Ivy

	botanical name Hedera helix
	sun requirements Partial to full shade
	height Up to 30’
	hardiness zones 4-13

English ivy is one of the most vigorous plants you can grow. That’s what makes it such a great ground cover. And if you want to cover your home’s facade in greenery, it’s fit for the job better than anything. However, all that lush growth means you’ll eventually want to contain it. 

Give your English ivy a good cut back in March to keep it manageable. You’ll need a strong pair of shears and some deep stretches. Take your time and trim away as much foliage as you want, leaving a couple feet at its base. 

For indoor plants, trim leggy vines or anything that’s growing out of control. Make your cuttings above the leaf nodes so the plant can grow back easily. Try composting the cut foliage as green waste. 

Shasta Daisy

	botanical name Leucanthemum × superbum
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-4’
	hardiness zones 5-9

Shasta daisies are stunning low-growing hybrid daisies that produce beautiful white petals and bright yellow centers. They’re absolutely magical when growing in dense clusters. They almost dance in the wind, attracting pollinators and looking lovely all summer long. 

These adorable flowers finish blooming in the fall and go dormant for the winter. Leave their stems alone over winter. Once spring arrives, they’ll start putting on new growth. During this time, usually in March, you’ll want to trim the old growth down to the base. 

Throughout the summer, deadhead your daisies as their flowers die. They’ll also respond well to consistent flower pruning throughout the growing season. Cut the flower stems at the base and use them as ornamental cut flowers in vases or bouquets. 

Butterfly Bush

	botanical name Buddleja davidii
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 2-12’
	hardiness zones 5-9

Butterfly bushes are some of the fastest growing plants you can grow. They’re also invasive and can spread uncontrollably, causing harm to native ecosystems. If you live in Oregon and Washington, these weeds are illegal to grow. If you still want to plant these beautiful yet harmful flowers, try growing these approved cultivars instead. 

Once established, these plants will have to be cut back severely in March. Trim the old growth down to ground level, leaving the new growth. This hard pruning will encourage the plants to put on bigger blooms and fuller foliage. 

Prune your shrubs to maintain their shape. If you don’t prune aggressively, these plants will end up taking control of your garden. Avoid trimming them in the fall or your plants may not heal in time for the winter. 

Balloon Flower

	botanical name Platycodon grandiflorus
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 12-30”
	hardiness zones 3-8

Balloon flowers are gorgeous ornamental flowers that look like tiny purple balloons. When they open, they resemble gorgeous little stars suspended in the air. You can plant tons of them as a groundcover for an almost dreamy landscape decoration. 

These small flowers benefit from regular pruning. Cut back long leggy stems in March to promote new, healthy foliage. Cut back the old growth to the ground and leave the new growth. In the fall, you’ll cut the old growth down to the plant’s base. 

With regular pruning, these unique looking flowers will become healthy stars of your flower garden. Grow them with other perennial flowers for the ultimate living bouquet. 

Roses

	botanical name Rosa spp.
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 1-60’
	hardiness zones 2-11

Roses are some of the most beloved flowers in the world. Although they’re considered easy to grow, they need quite a lot of cutting back in early spring. Pruning helps encourage new blooms and new leaves. It helps revitalize your plants so they produce more attractive and sweet-smelling flowers.