YOUR PRUNING MONTH
Frances Tophill shows you how to get summer-fowering shrubs back in shape ready for spring
The garden in February is a place of hope and promise of things to come, though it can still be bitterly cold. This is a month of tidying up in earnest and pruning the last of your deciduous shrubs or trees before their new leaves start to emerge.
Summer-flowering shrubs that flower on the current season’s growth, like Buddleja davidii and perovskia, should be cut back now. Also cut beech and hornbeam hedging, but avoid clipping tender shrubs like melianthus, choisya or tender lavenders until April. Rose pruning can be done now, including climbing roses, which may need tying in if winter storms have blown them loose.
Cut back your winter display plants once they have gone over. So large, leggy mahonia can be pruned to encourage a bushier form; winter-flowering spindle (Euonymous europaeus) can be tidied up, as can chimonanthus. Dogwoods and willows can be cut back to a stool or stump now, too. It’s also a great time to prune deciduous trees like lime (Tilia), elder (Sambucus) and Persian ironwood (Parrotia persica).