My late grandmother loved to garden. So much so that, at the age of 60, she decided to channel her passion into a part-time career.
She took a Master Gardener course, bought a red ’96 Ford Ranger, and let me tag along as she tended the stately gardens of Mount Desert Island, Maine. After we arrived at a client’s property and unloaded her tools, I would follow her around like an apprentice, struck by the beauty of the pine woods and pebble beaches.
She would move slowly, her gait revealing back pain that she never complained about, and reach into the pocket of her cargo shorts again and again for her pruning shears. With their reliably sharp blades, she cut lilac and birch suckers to the ground, pruned roses, hydrangeas, and wisteria, and trimmed away white pine branches that interrupted woodland paths. She cleaned the pruners, oiled them, sharpened them regularly, and always stored them properly.
When my grandmother died in March 2020, my mother, also a gardener, asked me if I wanted any of her tools. I already owned a pair of Felco pruners, but I answered without hesitation that I would happily inherit another. I had the Felco 6 pruners, which are meant for smaller hands. The women in my family are of sturdy stock — I’m not sure why I considered myself petite at the time I bought them.
As soon as I felt my grandmother’s Felco 2 pair in my hand, I knew that they would offer me something the smaller pair could not.
Top pick
The Felco 2 may be the last set of pruners you ever own. Thanks to its 1-inch cutting capacity, contoured grip, edge-holding blades, and ease of repair, this longtime Wirecutter pick can last a lifetime.
Sharp, precise, and manageable for folks with small hands, this was my go-to pair of pruners before I began using my grandmother’s slightly more versatile classic Felco 2.
All Felco pruning shears are exceptionally sharp, but the Felco 2 has a cutting capacity of 1 inch, in contrast to the Felco 6’s 0.8-inch capacity. (Cutting capacity is determined by the maximum width the blades can open and thus the maximum-diameter branch they can comfortably cut.) That difference may seem minuscule, but it’s meaningful for enough tasks in the garden that these pruners, in part due to their excellent versatility, have been a longtime Wirecutter pick.
When it’s time to cut down the substantial woody stalks of my cutleaf coneflower at the end of the season, only the Felco 2 will do. Similarly, when I need to cut back the new growth on the tenacious maple sapling that insists on residing in my raspberry patch, I reach for the larger pair. Of course, I could take the time to dig out the sapling, but the Felco 2 makes it so easy to halt new growth that I always opt for the satisfying feeling of the snip instead.
Both pairs are comfortable to use and feature smooth, plastic-coated forged aluminum handles, but the Felco 2’s handles are 0.25 inch longer and have contoured finger grips, whereas the Felco 6 has curved handles but no contours. The contours offer extra stability, which is handy when I’m crouching, contorting, or standing on tiptoe. In moments of unrestrained sentimentality, the articulated grips remind me of the thousands of times my grandmother’s fingers squeezed those very handles.
For many gardening projects, I can use either pair interchangeably. In July, when my tomato plants begin to grow in earnest, I also prune them in earnest, trimming shoots and branches with abandon so the stems can breathe and the plants will have spare energy and nutrients to redirect toward future fruit. In September, when the daylily leaves are more yellow than not, I grab great handfuls of them and work the pruning shears through, pushing cut leaves aside until I’ve shorn the whole stand to the ground.
I will confess that while I inherited my grandmother’s shears and her enthusiasm for gardening, I didn’t exactly take on her fastidiousness. More often than I’d like to admit, I leave a trail of button-up shirts, rubber clogs, coffee cups, piles of weeds, and tools behind me when I garden. Although I have never lost either pair of my Felco pruners, I have accidentally abandoned them at times. Luckily, their signature bright-red handles make them easy to spot in a mulch pile, and thankfully, they’re uniquely easy to clean and repair.
A neglected pair of pruners may develop rusty blades that stick, a thumb lock that catches, or a broken spring. Tree sap or tomato residue can accumulate on blades, and if they’re used to hack at stubborn roots (an amateur mistake), the blades can get dull and dirty. Of course, even proper use takes a toll over time.
Fortunately, Felco offers a wealth of information online with extremely detailed instructions for cleaning, replacing, and repairing its tools. The company also sells replacement parts, and its website features exploded diagrams that are sure to delight anyone with a fondness for old-school schematics. Here’s a particularly empowering video, made by a Felco partner, about how to disassemble, clean, and sharpen Felco 2 pruners. Taking them apart, piece by piece, and soaking, scrubbing, and sharpening the blades is surprisingly easy and incredibly satisfying. (The process requires a 7 mm socket wrench, a 5/16 nut driver, and a small wire brush.)
Legions of fans attest to Felco’s buy-it-for-life credibility, asserting that they’ve owned their Felco pruners for 10, 20, or even 30 years. My grandmother’s pruners, which are nearly 30 years old, are in remarkably good shape but still require maintenance. The plastic coating is starting to peel off the aluminum handles, but I’m planning to buy new grips for around $13 and to follow these instructions for installing them.
Now, when I reach for my basket of garden tools, I’m reminded of afternoons spent helping my grandmother on Mount Desert Island. When the work at one garden was done, we’d load our spades, tarps, trugs, and fertilizer into the bed of her Ranger. In the front seat next to her, I would pull her tool-filled canvas L.L.Bean tote close to me so that she could maneuver the stick shift with ease.
As a kid, I didn’t recognize the seeds of legacy that were being sown. Now I feel grateful to uphold that legacy with her Felco 2 pruners, which serve as a physical reminder of the true inheritance she left me: a love for gardens and an enduring will to tend them.
This article was edited by Harry Sawyer and Megan Beauchamp.
