Pruning is something that all garden plants can benefit from, and some even in winter.
During the winter, most woody plants are dormant, as are the many diseases and insects that can potentially invade pruning cuts. Therefore, pruning when the weather is cold prevents your freshly pruned trees and shrubs from getting infected.
Sharing advice in his latest blog post, gardening guru Monty Don has shared top tips when it comes to pruning three plants this month.
Pruning buddleias
For those living in the south or a sheltered area, February is “the best time” to prune the butterfly bush, buddleia davidii, and it can be done any time in the coming month in colder areas, claimed Monty.
It produces its flowers on new growth so if it is cut back hard new, just before it begins growing, gardeners will “stimulate extra new shoots” and make sure that the shrub has “as high a proportion of flower to wood as possible”.
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If this plant is growing in the open, it can be cut back very hard leaving just two or three sets of new shoots from the base.
However, if it is growing in a border it is better to cut back to two or three feet from the ground so that the new growth does not have to compete with surrounding herbaceous plants for light and air.
Pruning roses
While Monty argues that roses will always “bounce back” when pruned, he did note that there are “three considerations” to bear in mind when pruning them.
1. Hybrid teas, floribunda and hybrid perpetuals
Monty instructed that these types of roses should be “pruned hard each spring”, removing all weak, damaged or crossing stems first and then pruning the remaining stems to form an open bowl of stubby branches.
2. Shrub roses
These need “very little pruning” and a “once-over with a hedge trimmer” has proven to be “very effective”, Monty finds.
She said: “I prune mine in winter and early spring by removing exceptionally long growth, damaged or crossing branches and then leave alone. There is a strong case for doing this in late summer or early autumn.”
3. Climbing roses
True climbers
These types of roses tend to have single, large flowers covering the period from early summer right into autumn.
These should be pruned in autumn or winter, trying to maintain a framework of long stems trained laterally with side branches breaking from them. These side branches will carry the flowers on new growth produced in spring.
Monty instructed: “Ideally a third of the plant is removed each year – the oldest and woodiest stems so that it is constantly renewing itself.”
Ramblers
These roses have clusters of smaller flowers just once in mid-summer and need little pruning, but should be trained and trimmed “immediately after flowering” as the flowers are carried mostly on stems grown in late summer.
Pruning clematis
Late-flowering clematis, those in group three, are the only ones that should be pruned this month. The others can be pruned but will result in little to no flowers this year.
As late-flowering clematis all flower on growth made in spring, all the previous year’s growth should be cleared away now.
Monty said: “I always cut down to about two feet from the ground, leaving at least two healthy pairs of buds.”
