Without it, many plants tend to decline long before they reach their potential as a landscape specimen. Pruning will maintain a constant supply of younger, more productive flowering wood on most plants. Most individuals can easily care for their plants once they understand what constitutes proper pruning and when their plants should be pruned. However, the final appearance of the plants will be directly related to the technique used to care for the plants. The major difference between pruning and shearing is that pruning involves the individual cutting of each branch or twig that you wish to remove.
Shearing is the indiscriminate clipping of all twig ends on the plant.
Any pruning will stimulate new growth and branching from a point immediately below the cut. Pruning will alter the chemical nature of the plant because it removes growth chemicals contained in the terminal bud. While these chemicals are present, they restrict the elongation and growth of lateral buds below that point on the stem. Once this dominant chemical is removed through pruning some plants have a greater ability to generate new growth from lateral buds or dormant buds inside the stem. Pruning takes off larger pieces of growth at specific locations on the plant and only affects the dominance on individual stems that have been cut.