We just bought our first home and I've been bitten by the gardening bug. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I'm doing. It took me an hour to find out what a root sucker was so I'm hoping answers will come a little faster here with you gurus! We just bought a harry lauder's walking stick (contorta filbert) and a Japanese Maple Osakazuki. The contorta is five years old and the Maple is about six feet high. Is there a general rule of thumb regarding pruning? What does it mean to buy plants from their own root system (or something like that). Any help or advice on ANYTHING is appreciated!

First thing, you don't want to have PLAN on pruning. Buy things that fit the size you need considering the mature size. Pruning is done for several reasons: to control size, to maintain a desired shape or to remove dead branches. You don't want to HAVE to control size, so buy the right plant.

Most of my plants never need pruning. That way, I can spend my gardening time doing more enjoyable things or just admiring the garden. Or pulling weeds!

To your second question, some plants are GRAFTED onto different rootstock. That means that two plants are joined together - hard root stock towards the ground, showy plant above. But most plants are just plants and have their own root system and there is no graft.

If you have a grafted plant, sometimes growth shoots from the plant below will come out. It is recommended that these be trimmed off so that they don't take away from the special plant above.

Thank you so much! The filbert is the right size for the spot...it's perfect. I was just confused when the salesperson said it needed to be pruned. I appreciate the explanation re: root stocks. I had no idea how to even google that question.

Yes, perhaps the filbert is grafted and he was trying to explain about that. In that case, just prune off any "non-curly" suckers that may come from the lower part of the plant.

It's a nice specimen plant and will made a handsome feature to your garden.