The Only Clippers I Would Ever use

Many, many years ago, as a newbie gardener, I walked into my local nursery (they’re now referred to as garden centers). It was a place I loved to visit and I was learning all about plants, gardening, and landscape design at the time.

I decided I needed to have a pair of clippers. I didn’t have a garden yet, but I thought I’d be ready when I started one. (I was really eager!)

Right away the owner of the nursery took me to the clippers and presented me with Felco #2 clippers. “These are the best” she told me. At the time they were $36 and I thought it was a lot, but I wanted to do the right thing. So I bought them.

I have always been grateful that I was steered by a caring pro to the right tool.

I still have that that set of clippers. I’ve used them for over 30 years. They’ve always been very comfortable in my hand, they stay sharp for a long time, and they easily cut through the wood of fruit trees and cleanly through the delicate stems of my cutting flowers.

That original pair was made by two companies, Felco and Corona. The companies have since parted ways, and I have tools from both. But for clippers, I still use and recommend Felco. The #2 is the best.

I recently worked at a nursery and a woman wanted clippers. I showed her the Felco #2 , but she balked at the price and picked out a cheaper Felco pair. Before I rang her up, I said ‘just compare the feel of the #2’s”. She held each pair in her hand and was immediately convinced. She bought the #2 Felcos.

I now use my old pair, that I have not maintained well (😔), for tough jobs. But for cutting and for pruning my flowers I have a newer pair. They always cut cleanly, which is what you want for harvesting flowers, so that all their water vessels stay open and able to take up water. And if you have to make a slit into the bottom of a woody stem (like lilacs) so it’ll take up more water, the blade does it easily… just go slowly and carefully with that.

The feel of these clippers is excellent. They’re comfortable so I can work many hours with them, whether I’m pruning fruit trees, removing blackberries, or harvesting a lavender hedge. Then I can come back to cutting my flowers.

They’re spring-loaded so that once you’ve made your cut, opening your hand opens the blades for the next cut. That way there’s no using your hands to open the blade like some flower cutting shears do. This reduces the stress on your hands, and it makes it faster to do more clipping.

So I strongly recommend Felco #2 clippers. Buy them once, take care of them, and they’ll be the only ones you’ll ever need.

They’re about double the price now, but what isn’t. But they’ll last you a lifetime and give you endless hours of comfortable, sure-handed, clean pruning and clipping.

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