snip, clip, crop, trim, lop, dress, prune, cut back

cultivate, tend, and cut back the growth of"dress the plants in the garden"

• shear — cut with shears, as of hedges
• poll, pollard — convert into a pollard, as of trees
• top, pinch — cut the top off
• disbud — thin out buds to improve the quality of the remaining flowers

• thin out — make sparse