The first cut
CHOP CHOP! NOW IS THE TIME TO PRUNE BACK LATE SPRING AND EARLY SUMMER FLOWERING SHRUBS
MOST folk regard autumn and winter as pruning time. But the truth is, taking up secateurs and giving plants the chop can be a confusing business, whatever the time of year.
However, there are some shrubs that are best pruned as soon as they finish flowering, and these are the late-spring and early-summer flowering shrubs such as weigela and philadelphus.
Philadelphus, which is also known as mock-orange and syringa, is too often left to its own devices. As a result it becomes woody and less willing to flower regularly.
Over the next few weeks, when its flowers fade, take a good look at the bush and see what you can do to improve its shape and general youth.
Instead of just chopping the stems back by half (which is many people’s idea of pruning and which simply encourages the production of more leafy growth rather than flowering shoots), set about thinning out the shrub.
Remove, as close to ground level as you can, about a third of the older gnarled stems. You are trying to retain as much one-year-old wood as you can – those long, vigorous wands that were made a year or so ago and that should carry flowers next year.
You can remove a foot or two from the ends of stems that are too long, whippy and unwieldy, but it is the older stems that should go first.
Aim to leave a well-spaced framework of younger stems, which contribute to the shapeliness of the bush.
If you are faced with an old shrub that is made up almost entirely of older stems, take out half of them and aim to do the job again next year, removing the other half. By then the bush should have produced some younger stems to replace them.
You can adopt the same technique with weigela – as well as removing older wood, snip out some of the clusters of stems that clearly flowered last year, leaving more space for healthy new shoots to develop.
Get into the habit of yearly pruning and your mock orange or weigela should remain much more youthful and skilled with flowers.
Clematis montana – the most vigorous clematis of all – does not need regular pruning (which is just as well, bearing in mind its eventual height and spread), but after a few years it may have got out of hand and become too invasive, romping over fences and buildings. If that is the case, now is the time to tackle it.
You can cut it back as hard as you like, pulling away unwanted growth and hacking it back to reduce its coverage.
Next year it may well grow less extravagantly and bloom less willingly, but by the following year it will have got into its stride again and be flowering profusely.
By then you will be presiding over a climber that is much more restrained – for a year or two anyhow.
Some shrubs are best pruned as soon as they finish flowering