When I first saw the Corona Flex-Dial adjustable pruners I wasn’t sure what to make of the dial on the side. But now having tried it out on some of my first pruning jobs of the year I can say that I love these pruners. I tackled a few shrubs, and old yew, a prickly red barberry, a very twiggy spirea and a rangy old purple smoke tree.

I have small hands, (the one thing I have in common with a certain leader of a certain country,) which is one reason why I swear by other pruners like the Fiskars micro snips—we’ve written about them here—which I absolutely love. For deadheading and other light jobs I hate to use anything else.

Of course most gardeners love their traditional Felco bypass pruners. Helen and I have our names written on each of ours so we don’t get them mixed up.

Thou shalt not covet thy sister’s Felco pruners nor accidentally put them into your own gardening basket.

Onto my first use of my Flex-Dial Corona pruners. I put the dial onto the smallest number: one. What the dial does is restrain the blades to the degree of openness you wish, and stops them from opening out wide again between cuts. So dialing in a small number keeps a narrow opening for your pruning blades. It’s extremely easy to open it up for any wider branches, when you want to switch. But even when I was pruning the spirea I kept it at a fairly small size because it just felt so good in my hands that way. Not having to open my hand super-wide for each cut made the job easier and more effortless.

The blades are super sharp. I was cutting through those dead twigs with very little effort. They were really a pleasure to use. The soft cushiony Comfort-Gel grips on the handles makes them really comfortable. The lock is easy to to flip on and off as well.

Helen put them to the test as well and agreed, “ The ability to dial to a narrow setting made repetitive snips much easier.” These are going to be one of my favourite pruners from now on, possibly eclipsing the Felcos for many jobs, and maybe even my favourite Fiskars.

(Corona Tools generously provided sample tools for us to try at our Garden Writers meeting this spring.)