Pruning is an essential garden maintenance task as it keeps plants healthy and helps them grow to their full potential.
The gardening task involves removing parts of a plant, such as dead, diseased and damaged branches, spent flowers and dying buds.
However, it’s important to only prune those plants that need it during the month of February.
To help you out, experts at Hedges Direct have shared what to prune now and why.
1. Deciduous shrubs that have failed to flower over winter
According to the experts, February may be your last chance to prune winter-flowering deciduous shrubs.
They claim that it’s best to do this straight after they have flowered, so the exact timing will vary from species to species.
Pruning them will help to “promote plant growth for the year ahead”. Some examples of shrubs that can benefit from this are flowering currants, forsythia and mock orange.
2. Wisteria
To get “spectacular, fragrant and dramatic blooms” from your wisteria plants, the experts recommend pruning them now. They claimed that it is “essential” for them to be pruned twice a year – now and in late summer.
Due to its rapid growth, the plant will need to be pruned “severely”, but without cutting off any of the buds so that the plant can focus its energy on flowering instead of producing new leaves.
Another benefit to hard pruning wisteria is that it will prevent it from overgrowing and should reward you with an array of colourful flowers come late spring and early summer.
3. Evergreen shrubs and hedges
For gardeners who have ant evergreen shrubs that they didn’t get around to pruning last month, they should look to get them ticked off their list.
With them being sturdy plants, they can handle being pruned in the colder months. Just make sure all the frost has cleared.
A few examples of evergreen shrubs that should be pruned after they’ve flowers are berberis, lavender, orange blossom, and box.
Those shrubs that have been neglected for a long time or are overgrown can benefit from strong pruning to help renovate them. After pruning them, always follow up with fertiliser and mulch.
4. Clematis
Both midsummer flowering and late-summer flowering clematis “need to be pruned” once a year to “retain their shape and promote new flowers”.
Midsummer-flowering clematis can benefit from lighter pruning in February and may sometimes flower again in late summer.
Late-summer flowering clematis species will need a harder prune. If your plant is established, cut the stems back to the lowest pair of buds above the soil. Young clematis can be cut back to a minimum of 30cm above the soil.
