"Working with Mother Nature." That's how The Greenery describes its services. But sometimes it's necessary to slow nature down a little in order to satisfy client needs. Shannon O'Quinn, The Greenery's landscape maintenance supervisor, is getting pretty good at this, resulting in big labor savings.

The Greenery's South Carolina service area is peppered with beautiful resorts. Property owners expect the best.

O'Quinn has been conducting shrub pruning trials on behalf of his employer. Pruning is a huge labor item and a major cost to clients.

"Two factors can really increase our pruning cycles," O'Quinn says. "First is the need for an instant landscape. To get that finished look, you over-plant, which means you have to prune a lot later on. And four or five years down the line you have trouble keeping up." Also, some commonly used shrub varieties like ligustrum and eleangus grow aggressively and require lots of pruning.

One of O'Quinn's client properties is the historic plantation and private golf course community of Berkeley Hall near Hilton Head. "We take care of a formal ligustrum hedge there that measures about four feet wide, six feet tall and nearly a half-mile long. To preserve its natural beauty we can't prune it in a boxed-off way with powered hedge trimmers; we have to do it by hand," he says.

Faced with these challenges, O'Quinn tested two plant growth regulators (PGRs).

The Solution: A granular PGR One of the products that O'Quinn tested was Cutless Granular plant growth regulator from SePro. He says it yielded "really good results." He has used it so far in trial studies on boxwood and Asiatic jasmine at account properties. "It saved three prunings on formal hedges, without any discoloration or adverse effects on leaf size and pattern," he says.

O'Quinn says the costs of buying and applying Cutless Granular against the costs of pruning labor and debris removal for two prunings on the half-mile ligustrum hedge will save $1,600 a year. "We would be spending about $400 to save $2,000. That's a good deal."

O'Quinn puts down 8.25 ounces of the product per 100 sq. ft. within the plant dripline. Using a Spred-Rite-G applicator (or a new, specially calibrated scoop for smaller areas), he gets a season's worth of control from a single application.

Plants that he treated with the plant growth regulator have flourished. "Less pruning promotes an overall healthier plant," says O'Quinn.

O'Quinn prefers applying a granular formulation instead of a spray. "It's easier and cleaner," he says. "You have better control without worrying about spray drifting. And it's visually more appealing to anyone who sees you working."

O'Quinn will soon begin additional trials on flowering plants.

— The author is a freelance writer based in Indianapolis. For more information visit http://www.sepro.com/