You should be pruning in late winter and you must leave some of last years wood in order to get fruit. If you prune off all of last years wood, you will get nothing. You can tell the difference between one yr and older wood by the color of the bark.

Hi Eskota, Pruning sealer is something that Gator and I disagree on. As has been mentioned, Linda Chalker-Scott is not the end-all authority for horticulture, but at least her conclusions are scientifically based. Below is a link of what she has to say regarding pruning sealer. I do think Bug Juice could have a small slight residual benefit if you are concerned about borers colonizing a pruning wound. Not that there is anything particularly special about Bug Juice (i.e. Deltamethrin) vs. other pyrethroids, but any broad spectrum insecticide will tend to slow borers down. I think there could be some advantage to treating large wounds with a strong copper solution. The reason is that large wounds can take many years to heal over. If the wound is large enough the wood in the center of wound can rot before the wound calluses over completely. If that happens, it will leave a hole that could trap water in the hole and slow callusing even more. Copper is decidedly different than asphalt or caulk type products that are routinely sold for wound dressings. Copper will not seal in moisture. I will also point out that my comments regarding copper are not based upon scientific testing. They are based only on deduction and some experience. Deductively, copper has fairly good broad spectrum fungicide activity. Copper is also one of the preservatives of treated lumber. And again copper will not seal in moisture as other wound dressings can. I first learned of this idea from an arborist who posted on a different forum. He claimed to have used this treatment with good success. My experience is also anecdotal. I've tried it on one very large wound. I treated the wound a couple times in the last three years and haven't seen any rotting of the core wood yet. The wound continues to close up. It was probably the largest wound I've made (about 6"). I've made several smaller wounds 4" or less and haven't put any copper on them and they've healed up themselves. I do try to spray big wounds when I spray the fruit for insects and disease. Generally I have an insecticide and fungicide in the tank mix, so the wounds get attention of a sort. I try not to let unwanted limbs get so far ahead of me that I have to use a chain saw. I'm getting better and for the last few years I've only made large wounds where I let central leader trees (like pears) get too tall and am bringing them down slowly. Here is a link that might be useful: Linda Scott - Wound dressings

I agree with Terrene; best to leave them standing until growth begins in spring, and the same goes for most summer-blooming plants. A lot of plants that we grow as perennials are actually sub-shrubs, and they benefit from being left alone until spring. Things like gaura, caryopteris, perovskia, mums, and most herbs, even the little ones like the thymes, all have a much higher survival rate if they're not cut back in fall. I actually cut back all my butterfly bushes this weekend, not because it's good for them but because the ones I have are wickedly prolific self-seeders, and I'm trying to kill them the easy way. It's too bad, too, because they had pretty, silvery, felty leaflets on the branches, and they DID look nice. If I could just keep them dead-headed in summer ... but they get way too tall for that to work here.

beany's out of league on this one ... dont remove more than 1/3 of the canopy ... in the pic.. at least everything below the top of the black stuff or water.. whatever that is ... and maybe one or two more ... then let it go .. and maybe take another one or two in fall .. i am not one much to having a best time of year for pruning... except maybe red oak .... its usually done when it pisses me off.. or when i walk by with the saw .... i might look the rest of the way up 8 feet or so.. and snip out a few of the tiny branches .. kinda thinning up to my goal... without waiting until i get that high ... bet this thing puts on 3 feet of growth this year... cant think you can go wrong... short of pruning it up 11 feet ... lol just look at the structure as a whole... take the bottom ones.. and think about your pruning for the next 3 years.. and see if any whim hits you .. ken