Art of Pruning Shrubs

Pruning shrub s calls for the personal touch that can be developed, but only out of a genuine love for plants. First, let us consider those shrubs that flower in the spring and early summer on the previous year’s wood. These include chaenmeles, cytisus, brooms, deutzia, jarminum, kerrias, philadelphus, Pruriu, trilaba, Spiraea arguta, prumfalia plena, thunbergii and weigelas. The stems that have flowered are cut back to young shoots lower down the stems.

There are usually two or three of these shoots which will develop and bear flowers in the following year. Forsythias flower on shoots which are two years old or more but these are pruned in the same way after flowering.

When pruning brooms all the stems with developing seed pods are cut back to the young shoots. In the case of weigelas and deutzias, you need to cut out the old flowered wood near to the base of the plant, at the same time leaving as many new shoots as possible. They will flower much better due to this harder pruning.

We come now to the shrubs which flower on the current season’s wood. The main ones to include here are Buddleia davidii, earyopteris, and deciduous varieties of ceanothus, hardy fuchsias, hydrangea paniculala and tamarix. I always cut all the old stems down to within a few inches of the ground in early spring. These shrubs are very vigorous and soon send up plenty of young shoots.

When Buddleia davidii, Hydrangea paniculata, ceanothus and tamarix are cut right down each year they do not grow quite as large as they would do naturally. While this suits owners of small gardens admirably, some gardeners like to have larger specimens. Therefore, a framework of older branches can be built up by pruning some of the shoots less severely. However, hard pruning of the flowered wood must still be carried out.

The flowered shoots contained on the main framework must be cut back to within two or three buds of the main stems during March or April. They will then send up masses of whippy shoots. This is a good way, for example, of growing willows in a small garden. The colored and leaved elders can also be pruned hard each spring, either to within a few inches of the ground, or a framework of older wood that can be built up. The shoots from this cut back to within two or three buds of their base. After pruning those shrubs which flower on the current year’s wood, I usually give them a dressing of an all-purpose fertilizer. I find that this encourages them to make strong growth.