Every gardener needs a quality pair of secateurs. No other tool multi-tasks so efficiently, whether you’re deadheading, pruning roses or shrubs, taking cuttings, clearing borders, or harvesting homegrown fruit and veg. Choose the best secateurs and they’ll deliver years of brilliant performance, making gardening a truly rewarding pastime.
Investing in shiny new secateurs plays a vital role in keeping your garden healthy, too. Razor sharp blades make a clean, precise cut – ensuring that wounds heal rapidly with minimal risk of infection. Sharp blades also require less effort to cut, reducing the chances of straining your wrist. Blunt secateurs, however, risk tearing and crushing plant material and creating messy cuts that take longer to heal. They also increase the possibility of disease gaining a foothold.
Comfy secateurs are essential to cultivate a garden to be proud of. Regular deadheading spurs plants into producing further flushes of flowers. Trimming shrubs helps to create a neat, orderly appearance. Sharp secateurs make light work of clearing brambles or overgrown parts of the garden. These invaluable tools will earn their keep in autumn, too. This is when you can clear perennials from borders when plants die down ahead of winter.
How to choose the best secateurs
Before heading to the garden centre, it’s important to understand the difference between bypass and anvil secateurs. This is so you can choose the right tool for your needs. Although keen gardeners are likely to need a pair of both!
First, bypass secateurs are an ideal general purpose tool for cutting live, green wood (soft or delicate stems), as well as deadheading. They feature two sharp blades that work in a scissor-like action, delivering a neat, precise cut.
Anvil secateurs up the game, because they are ideal for tough tasks such as pruning woody material or cutting out dead wood. Featuring a blade that closes onto a cutting block, anvil secateurs are invaluable for gardeners who need to cut through thicker, harder stems with ease.
Always try before you buy
To choose the right secateurs for you, try before you buy. Of course, you can’t prune plant material at a garden centre, but a number of factors should be taken into consideration.
First and foremost, hold the secateurs in your hand. Do they feel too heavy, too light or just right? Look at the packaging to see if they’re made for right or left-handed gardeners (or both). Feel the handles to ensure they provide a comfortable grip, and aren’t too small or too large for your hands.
Next, examine the features. Are the blades made of tough carbon steel with anti-rust properties? And do the secateurs incorporate any extra features such as integrated wire and string cutters. These are especially handy if you’re tying plants to supports as you snip.
Finally, does your chosen pair come with a long guarantee for added peace of mind?
Bypass secateurs for pruning live wood and deadheading
For everyday tasks such as deadheading flowers, pruning live, green wood and harvesting vegetables, bypass secateurs are essential and it’s important to choose the best ones.
Kent & Stowe’s SureCut All Purpose Lite Secateurs are engineered for comfort and precision when cutting through soft plant tissue. They combine two must-have features: tough, ultra-sharp carbon steel blades to ensure a healthy cut, and a lightweight aluminium body with superb grip to ensure that pruning is efficient and enjoyable.
If you’ve struggled to find secateurs that fit your hand size in the past, these are ideal for left or right-handed users. They feature an adjustable hand sizer so they can be tailored to provide unique comfort and grip. They also feature a 24mm cutting diameter and come with five year guarantee.
Gardeners with petite hands, or those who find handling heavy tools too much while gardening, should also check out Kent & Stowe’s Garden Life All Purpose Mini Secateurs. These are a lighter and more compact version of SureCut All Purpose Lite Secateurs with a 15mm cutting dimeter and integrated string cutter.
Take a look at our very best Eversharp All Purpose Secateurs too. These are a classic bypass pruner and great all-rounder. Made with unique aerospace-coated technology, their anti-rust, high carbon steel blades are twice as sharp as any other. They are also 50 times harder than the average blade. The bi-material grips ensure they’re comfortable and easy to use, whether you’re dead-heading roses, pruning shrubs or cutting live wood.
With a 24mm cutting diameter and adjustable hand sizer, they’re ideal for right and left-handed gardeners and include wire and string cutters. Plus, you can buy with confidence because they have by a long, 10 year guarantee.
If you crave the features of Eversharp All Purpose Secateurs but have smaller hands, then look out for Eversharp All Purpose Lite Secateurs. These also feature an adjustable hand sizer but are perfect for gardeners who prefer smaller secateurs that provide supreme levels of comfort.
Anvil secateurs for tough pruning of hard wood
When the going gets tough heavy duty anvil secateurs come into play. These ultra-strong secateurs have been crafted to cleanly cut mature wood when pruning and slice through dead wood when removing old shrubs that are past their prime.
SureCut Hard Wood Lite Secateurs, with a 27mm cutting diameter, cut through hard wood with precision. They use super-tough carbon steel blades, and they also feature comfy grips and a lightweight aluminium body, all backed by a five year guarantee.
When it comes to tackling the toughest tasks, Kent & Stowe’s SureCut Hard Wood Ratchet Secateurs are ideal for powerful pruning. They feature two cutting modes. A ratchet mode that’s capable of making four short cuts through branches up to 22mm in diameter, and a single mode for clean, one-slice cuts through smaller woody branches up to 18mm in diameter.
For the ultimate in anvil secateurs, take a look at Kent & Stowe’s Eversharp Hard Wood Secateurs. Featuring an extraordinarily high carbon steel blade with Eversharp technology, they’re twice as sharp and six times longer-lasting than any other blade. With a 27mm cutting diameter, lightweight aluminium body, they offer the highest level of comfort and grip. These secateurs also cater for right and left-handed gardeners. They also feature an integrated wire cutting notch and come with a 10 year guarantee, too.
Top tools for trimming topiary and light pruning
A pair of snips can work wonders when it comes to keeping plants at the peak of perfection. Kent & Stowe’s SureCut Perennial Snips are just the ticket for shaping perennials and box topiary, or lightly trimming shrubs.
Designed for easy single-handed use, a long, thin, carbon steel razor-sharp blade ensures fast, fine cutting, with rubber micro hex handles offering superior comfort and grip.
Looking to cut flowers for the vase, snip tasty herbs to add to your home-cooked dishes, deadhead spent blooms or cut string or wire? Eversharp Garden Snips are the go-to tool. Featuring ultra-sharp carbon steel blades with a micro tip for superb accuracy. They also have a lightweight aluminium body and exceptional grip and comfort. There’s an integrated wire cutter, too.
Finally, for light pruning, shaping and deadheading, compact Garden Life Snips will make pottering a joy. This lightweight tool’s sharp carbon steel blades and micro-tip offer the finest precision and ease of use. Perfect for those who crave manicured plants to be proud of.
