I was pruning again today. Still have plenty more to do but the whole bed along the side of the house is done. It was still chilly this morning, a crust of ice was on the birdbath water. I waited until afternoon and it warmed up. The spring pruning is lots of work because I have lots of HTs and those of course need lots of pruning. But I prune down everything including my Floribundas and shrub roses. Doesn't make much difference on HTs, they just grow tall no matter what but on the Floribundas and shrub roses it does encourage them to grow nice and thick and twiggy instead of tall and lanky. Most of the HTs are on Dr Huey but I did order some roses two years ago that were grafted on Multifloria. I noticed that they grew much slower than the ones grafted on Dr Huey. So I did not cut them back quite as much. Also, this is a very unscientic observation but the ones on Multiflora have no canker and did not really NEED to be cut back while the HTs on Dr Huey always have lots of canker canes and need a strong prunning in the spring. As they are all treated all the same and planted in the same beds I do not know what else it could be but rootstock.

If I were you, I would only thin out the fruits instead of pruning the tree. Remove the fruits from the outermost area of the canopy, remove from the outermost limbs of the thin branches. This will help your branches carry the remaining fruits and more so if they are closer to the trunk. Your fruits would be bigger and better quality compared to thinning them out by pruning. Citrus trees tend to develop skirt (lower canopy) around its trunk to protect it from sunlight burns, and usually the skirts are only pruned to prevent it from touching the ground. Citruses are usually not pruned unless if the time comes when you value structure more than fruit production. You prune when the tree shape doesn't suit your style, or some branches are diseased, touching the fences or house and other structures or interferes with other things for one reason or another. But if you do prune, do it in late spring to early summer. You need all the canopy you can use to tide over the winter. And should occasional frost drops by for a visit, your tree is more protected. And if some branches die off, which usually are the uppermost, you shouldn't remove them until the dangers of frosts are over. During the winter, you would need those dead branches for added cold protection just in case. You will know for sure which branches have surely died and will not recover by late spring to early summer, that is why you prune at that time to remove the dead branches. Plus, never prune when there are rains coming as it could make your tree susceptible to diseases. Late spring to early summer, usually is a lot drier than fall and winter. So that's another incentive to prune at that time should you really need to prune your citrus tree. I for one seldom prune my tree, but for balancing it, I simply graft more cultivars to it like shown in the link here: The ultimate multi-grafted citrus tree

Hi Bill, thanks for thinking of me today. I wanted to get outside today too, it was so sunny and pleasant, but, I hit the wall early in the day, after staying up watching the Super Bowl. [g] . Tomorrow for sure, I am going to get out there. I also have some seed that overwinters for me, that I want to sow under the mulch. The shrubs I want to prune.... I have a 50 year old Kolkwitzia that hasn't been pruned in probably 10 years. And the last person that pruned it seems to have cut too many of the interior branches almost waist high and they are all dead stumps. The shrub has looked pretty good and bloomed well every year, in that overhanging vase shape, but I really want to get all the dead stumps out of there. I don't want to lose that shrub and cut it all back to the ground, just in case, so I'm even considering waiting until after it blooms in June and then prune it. In the meantime, I could take some cuttings for insurance in case something happens to it. A second shrub is a Gray Dogwood that suckers extensively. It has a main shrub surrounded by much smaller suckers. I plan on cutting back all of the main shrub to the ground and allowing the suckers to fill in. We had some storm damage to some important limbs on the main shrub and then a neighbor dropped a big branch on more of it, so it has to get the main shrub removed. The third shrub is a Clethra 'Sherry Sue' that is different than the 'Hummingbird' because it blooms in September and is twice the height. It is under the dripline of a grouping of Silver Maples facing east, so it gets morning sun. It apparently gets enough sun because it blooms well every year, but I've noticed last season that the main trunks are leaning out toward the sun, so they are now too low and leaning and I want to remove the largest of them and let it work itself out as it continues to grow. So the Kolkwitzia can wait until June but the other two I'd think it's best to get those done before the growing season starts.

I am in zone 4a and I have always pruned trees throughout the winter. But my trees are young nursery trees. Nothing over 2.5" in trunk diameter usually. I don't have the luxury of ample time and sufficient labor to get through everything in a short window before spring growth explodes. Worth noting, most of my pruning is corrective and tip back, not removal of large lower branching. And I generally don't get a lot of pruning done between fairly early December and late January because the weather can be too harsh and/or the snow pack too deep. I usually do save the maples for last, but I have already pruned a few sections where the trees are a bit out-of-control. Cold damage/tip die-back from my pruning has been minimal over the years. I'm hoping to inspect things closer this year and record the results/damage (or lack thereof.) I keep a log of the dates that I have pruned each tree variety. So we'll see what this generally mild winter has done. That all said, if I was an upper Midwest homeowner with only a few trees to trim, I'd probably wait until sometime in March when the weather turns and the bitterly cold nights are done for the season.