A gardening shears includes a first blade, a driving arm pivoted to the first blade, a second blade pivoted to the first blade, and a link arm pivotally connected between the driving arm and the second blade. The bottom portion of the second blade has a sliding groove and positioning recesses. A switching device installed inside the driving arm is locatable at a first usage position where an end of the link arm is stationarily engaged with a positioning recess next to the top end of the sliding groove for enabling a direct cutting mode for cutting a small-sized branch, and a second usage position where the end of the link arm is slidable in the sliding groove and selectively engageable with one of the positioning recesses for enabling a stepwise cutting mode for stepwise cutting off a large-sized branch by changing the force-applying fulcrum.