How should I prune a year-old, leggy ‘Barnsley Baby’ shrub?
Faye, by email
Stefan says: ‘Barnsley Baby is a lovely thing, a dwarf form of the hybrid mallow Lavatera clementii, so different from the tall, often lanky perennial mallows grown in many herbaceous borders. It has the same, readily identifiable mallow flowers of a pale pink with darker centres. For anyone who does not know these dwarf varieties, it’s worth adding that there are other coloured forms too, including ‘Rosea’ in deeper pink and ‘Burgundy Wine’ with burgundy-red flowers. None of them will grow much more than 70-80cm tall and they make splendid container plants.
Yours has become leggy and you ask when it should be pruned. The answer is the same as with practically any other shrub: prune after flowering. But when the flowering is late in the season, I’d always delay pruning until the spring in order to give as much winter protection as possible.