During the springtime our gardens are waking up from their winter slumber. Buds are swelling, which in turn signifies a call to arms for gardeners. Those plants that we grow for foliage, for coloured stems or that flower later in the summer should be pruned at this time of year as a priority. The winter can be a long season in the garden, but now is a great time of year to remove any dead, damaged or diseased wood, giving the plant a full growing season to recover.
A group of plants that can strike fear into the heart of gardeners due to the apparent complications around their grouping and the consequential pruning regime is clematis. Spring is the best time to prune Group 3 types such as Clematis viticella by cutting away the majority of last year’s growth.
In general the timing of our pruning is dictated by how a plant behaves throughout the year. It’s your last chance for the shrubs that flower very early – say January and February – as these require pruning immediately after flowering. Doing so now gives the shrub the maximum amount of time to grow, ripen and carry the flowers for next winter. If you haven’t been able to prune them already, get cracking because their pruning season is all but over.