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Gardening in the UK

Help - pruning old shrubs

20 years ago

hi

Can someone please advise me what to do with my mock orange

Its actually in my mums garden, but she rarely prunes it!

I have only recently got interested in the garden

and went out to prune the other day

and I read in a gardening book that you should remove all the dead wood.

but because it hasn't been pruned for years, all the growth is on dead wood!

I don't want to kill it but it's out of control

What do i do?

Thanks in advance

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Comments (2)

shrubs_n_bulbs
20 years ago
Remove all dead wood is good advice for any tree or shrub. However, this means dead, not just old woody stems. You remove any wood that no longer produces leaves or flowers, that is the dead stuff. Other than that, remove as little or as much as you like. Now is not the best time to cut it to ground level, better in late winter, but you are unlikely to kill it whatever you do.

If it is in danger of becoming too big, then in March remove about a third of the oldest biggest stems down to near ground level. Repeat each year to keep things to the size you need.

If it is already completely out of control then you can remove all the stems down to near ground level. in March. Just chop them back by a half or so right now if you can't bear to look at it any longer. If you do this, it won't flower next year, and maybe not so great the year after, because it produces flowers on old wood.
mrs_tr3lly5
20 years ago
I would imagine a top heavy shrub is liable to wind damage. Also if thee is a tendency to grow in a certain direction she might watch out for that.

Windblown gardens are prone to that. Now would be a good time to put some fertiliser around the base and just trim it I imagine.
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