admmad said: Sooby Instead of cutting the leaves to as close as possible to the crown, would ripping all the leaves off (as close as possible to the crown) be better, especially for true evergreen cultivars?
If they would rip off cleanly then yes, but since they don't detach easily unless they are senescing I don't think so. If you look at this page, when I tried this the outer leaves would pull off cleanly but as I progressed to the inner ones they started to break off.
http://web.ncf.ca/ah748/newpla...
They still may have broken off close enough to the crown that it wouldn't be a problem, but this was with a plant out of the ground. If it was in the ground you wouldn't be able to pull sideways like that. If the plants are evergreen they may put up new growth if it is warm enough before any dislodged spores have been de-activated by the environment, too.
