Pruning tips for success

Simple tips for maintaining healthy and shapely trees

WHEN you are cutting back summer-flowering shrubs, cherries and plums, you should aim to create an attractive shape with an open, uncluttered centre that allows good airflow to keep your plants healthy.

Fungal spores and pests thrive in messy, densely clustered plant material with little access to light and air, so by removing those spindly, misshapen shoots that tend to grow inwards we are making our plants look better and also helping to keep them healthy.

Start with the ‘three Ds’ and remove dead, diseased and damaged growth, followed by weak and unproductive shoots.

When pruning, reduce branches back to a healthy pair of leaves or buds, or to an outward-pointing shoot that is growing in the shape and direction that you want.

Shrubs with small leaves, such as box, can be tidied using topiary shears, while standard shears are ideal for trimming faded clematis flowers and cutting back straggling stems encroaching over windows and other plants.