December is an ideal month for light pruning of certain shrubs. Avoid heavy cuts that could compromise spring blooms. Light pruning to shape and remove dead branches helps prevent cold and ice damage.

Sometimes a garden shrub grows too large for its site. It may have long branches blocking a walkway or window. It may be shading out other plants or getting wider and taking over a bed. Or, it may ...

Some trees and shrubs have a bad reputation for being susceptible to diseases: lilacs to powdery mildew, junipers to juniper tip blight, flowering crabapples to apple scab, and elms to Dutch elm ...