Regenerative Pruning
Regenerative pruning is a way to ensure that plants produce healthy new growth. Species such as roses and fruit trees may be pruned to promote more vigorous flowering and growth, often with higher-quality blooms.
Hard vs Light Pruning
Hard pruning promotes stronger growth than light pruning; this may be used to achieve particular flowering or growth effects. For example, roses may be cut back hard to produce a limited number of shoots, carrying large flowers or pruned lightly to produce a profusion of smaller flowers.
Some shrubs and trees benefit from a heavy annual prune, as their stems produced from new growth have particularly attractive characteristics. This includes species such as dogwood (Cornus alba), with its brilliant red winter stems, or violet willow (Salix daphnoides) which also has a beautiful winter stem colour, this time purple with a white bloom.
As hard pruning of strong, healthy growth tends to encourage even stronger growth, it is often best to prune weak growth strongly and strong growth lightly.