WHERE, WHEN AND HOW TO PRUNE?

It’s really not that difficult or stressful!

PROBABLY OUR MOST OFTEN ASKED QUESTION….

Pruning is a subject that books are written about, a routine maintenance task which experts can turn into high-science, and every gardener will have their own way of doing it. It’s one of those things where, if you ask 5 different people, you’ll most likely get 5 different answers!

This is what we decided to start our blog page with, simply because it’s asked about so much here at the nursery. At the same time, we know we can’t answer every pruning question on a blog site…..we’d need another website!

So where to start?

WHY DO WE PRUNE?

Pruning can be done for a whole load of reasons:

To keep plants small (like a hedge, or even a Bonsai)

To encourage plants to grow big leaves (like a Smoke Bush)

To stimulate extra flowers (like a Wisteria)

To encourage lots of fruit (like an Apple)

To promote growth for Winter interest (like a Dogwood)

To control the 3 D’s (dead, diseased and dying wood) on any plant

To reduce disease (like a rose)

To promote establishment of any newly planted purchase

To remove spent growth (like a raspberry)

To promote flowers where you can actually see them (like a Clematis or a Buddleia)

To stop plants getting ‘old’ (lots of shrubs and climbers)

To regenerate weak plants (anything that’s struggling)

To trick plants into a second flush of flowers (like a hardy Geranium)

Can you see the idea here? Pruning is done for so many reasons, there simply isn’t a cure-all technique that you can adopt on everything. So, what we’re going to do is create a series of separate posts which, in turn, will cover each of the pruning ideas listed above. We’re all ears and if you want us to explain something to you, we’re happy to do so and as long as you don’t mind it being included on our blog for all our readers to see, then please feel free to use our Contact page and email us?

Thanks! More will follow soon

Ian