Pruning Guides

The good news is that pruning photinia is not complicated once you understand two things: when to cut, and why you are cutting. Get the timing right, and photinia rewards you with multiple flushes of red growth through the season. However, prune at the wrong time, and you’ll either lose the colour entirely or create […]

Growing a wisteria in your garden can be one of the most impressive plants to welcome you home. In summer, wisteria has jaw-dropping, pendulous (raceme) lilac flowers that hang like purple pendants. These climbing giants can add a green, vertical layer of gardening to your home. Whether around a door to soften an entrance, grown […]

Quick Answer Prune most hydrangeas in late winter to early spring, ideally March in the UK, once the worst frosts have passed and you can see fresh buds emerging. Remove spent flower heads, cut back a quarter of the oldest stems to the ground, and trim remaining stems to an outward-facing bud. Climbing hydrangeas are […]

This guide covers everything you need to know about topping trees, also known as crown reduction, pollarding, heading back, lopping, or simply pruning to restrict height. We’ll look at which trees respond brilliantly, which ones will just laugh at your efforts and grow back twice as fast, and why conifers are in a category entirely […]

Quick Answer: Pruning Overgrown Star Jasmine Prune star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) immediately after flowering finishes in late summer (August-September). Cut back overgrown stems by up to two-thirds, removing old woody growth to encourage fresh flowering shoots. Star jasmine flowers on the previous year’s growth, so avoid spring pruning, which removes flower buds. Established plants tolerate […]

Quick Answer January is prime time for pruning apple and pear trees, wisteria, roses, soft fruit bushes (gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants), grapevines, deciduous hedges and most deciduous trees whilst they’re dormant. The bare branches make it easy to see the structure, and plants won’t bleed sap or suffer from disease as readily as when actively growing. […]

Quick Answer: Winter pruning is best carried out from November to March on dormant deciduous plants. Prune fruit trees, roses, wisteria, and deciduous shrubs during this period to encourage vigorous spring growth, better flowering, and improved fruit production. Never prune spring-flowering shrubs, evergreens, or stone fruits in winter. Over my many years of gardening and 15 […]

Yes, winter is the best time to prune most deciduous trees. When trees are dormant (from November to late February), they heal faster, diseases are inactive, and you can clearly see the tree’s structure without leaves. However, some trees like cherries, plums and other members of the Prunus family should never be pruned in winter […]

Sometimes gardeners can get a bit trigger-happy when it comes to pruning trees, especially in winter when their actual shape of the tree is laid bare. However, did you know that cherry, plum and apricot trees (any in the prunus genus) shouldn’t be pruned in winter due to them contracting a fungus called silver leaf? […]

As small garden trees and fruit trees grow each year, the risk of lower branches becoming too heavy to support the fruit is a real concern. If you leave these lower branches to continue to grow and bear fruit, the likelihood is they will start to droop to the flower and could tear themselves off […]