Adventitious buds

I am back on my favourite subject again, apologies for those bored by my endless pruning queries.

When pruning woody shrubs I have always believed it is best to snip them as far down as possible. This is what I did yesterday, for example - and each year the new stems spring up in their place. I can understand the new shoots emerging from the crown, or from buds/nodes - but in this case there are no buds. I am told the new shoots emerge from adventitious buds, but if this is so, what becomes of the stubs cut to ground level? Where do all these shorn stubs go - because they do disappear.

Am I to believe that the stem its self regrows, that the adventitious buds are at the cut stem's tip, "re-sealing" the stem, as it were?

 

All plants are different, but in general, if you cut a branch back it will grow from the next bud down.

Terminal buds,(those on the ends), are dominant, until the stem is cut back, usually the next bud down becomes dominant then, but others below might well sprout also, causing the plant to become more bushy.
Many plants also have hidden buds, that only become apparent once the stem is cut, these are usually under the bark on old wood, and allow rapid regrowth then a tree or shrub is cut back hard.

But some plants wont reshoot, if you cut hard back into old stems, these are the ones where you are advised to only lightly prune.

Anything cut to ground level will do one of two things, die or regrow.

Depending on the plant, it will sucker from the actual root or just die.

Thats my simplistic non botanical understanding of it, but I'm sure a good book could explain it better.

 

You have a strong interest in pruning and re-growth Simon. I do not habitually use the term adventitious, and if I am correct it means a bud that appears somewhere it should not-but I am unsure. The suckering that Pete talks about is pretty much how I would answer you. The shorn stems will either throw out new growth from a lower bud or failing that, eventually disintegrate. I would caution you on cutting back quite so hard myself, at least at this time of year, the old stems provide some level of protection from extreme cold. I am a bit of a butcher but, through experience, I have learned to restrict myself to springtime pruning just to be on the safe side. I make an exception to this for roses because I am wary of blackspot-although I only remove the straggly stems and all leaves and have decided to leave the proper pruning to early spring after advice from Woo.

Different plants do require different treatments and this is a bit of a generalistic answer I am afraid, sorry for that.