Pruning for Growth
When I was a young girl, my grandmother had a beautiful rose garden. It was formally laid out, right next to the house that sat in a clearing on a hilltop, surrounded by about five hundred acres of native forest.
My Gran tended her roses carefully. Fertilizing with manure and pruning in winter were all part of keeping the roses in full bloom.
It seems counterintuitive, to cut something back in order to help it grow—but any gardener knows that a good prune is essential to healthy growth. Growth may happen anyway, but it will be slower, messier and more erratic.
Gardening guru Peter Cundall advises that roses are among the toughest of all plants. Even if you ignore them, they’ll continue to flower, but there is no question they do benefit with a good winter prune.
In business, a good prune can also work wonders. This doesn’t mean sacking everyone! Rather, it means reviewing what’s really important in your business and pruning those aspects that don’t contribute to good growth. It’s easy to be busy. It’s easy to generate activity, but is it productive?
Are you growing a beautiful rose bush or a wild thicket of lantana?
What will you prune, and what will you keep?
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