This is my first posting, so hello out there.
I have recently inherited a large and slightly overgrown garden and would like to know how much I can cut back shrubs, in particular Philadelphus, Spirea (white flowered) and Viburnum Tinus. I think they are at least twenty years old and although they have been pruned in the past, they do not look as though they have seen a pair of secateurs for some years.
PRUNING SHRUBS
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oldherbaceous
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Dear Loirette, a very warm welcome to the Forum.
With all three of your shrubs i think i would cut about half of the oldest stems out right down to ground level. Then just trim any wayward branches back a little to leave a pleasing shape. This can be done in the Winter when the plant is dormant.
And then in following years aim to take out about 25% of the older wood.
Don't be frightened of pruning to much, as the worst you will do is lose a little flower next year with these three particular shrubs.
Hopefully you will get a reply from someone called Mole, he is our expert pruning specialist on the forum, and will probably explain it a little better than i have.
Hope this helps a little anyway.
With all three of your shrubs i think i would cut about half of the oldest stems out right down to ground level. Then just trim any wayward branches back a little to leave a pleasing shape. This can be done in the Winter when the plant is dormant.
And then in following years aim to take out about 25% of the older wood.
Don't be frightened of pruning to much, as the worst you will do is lose a little flower next year with these three particular shrubs.
Hopefully you will get a reply from someone called Mole, he is our expert pruning specialist on the forum, and will probably explain it a little better than i have.
Hope this helps a little anyway.
Kind Regards, Old Herbaceous.
There's no fool like an old fool.
There's no fool like an old fool.
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Primrose
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Welcome !
My own experience with pruning overgrown shrubs is that although one worries about killing them off by hard pruning, most of them really benefit from a fairly drastic cutting back in late autumn once the plant has become dormant. As OH says, you may have a slightly sparser flowering in the following Spring but the plant's energy will be restored. I think Choisia is a good example of this. Many times I pruned mine back almost to extinction and yet within months it always seemed to be back as big as ever.
My own experience with pruning overgrown shrubs is that although one worries about killing them off by hard pruning, most of them really benefit from a fairly drastic cutting back in late autumn once the plant has become dormant. As OH says, you may have a slightly sparser flowering in the following Spring but the plant's energy will be restored. I think Choisia is a good example of this. Many times I pruned mine back almost to extinction and yet within months it always seemed to be back as big as ever.
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vivienz
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Hello Loirette,
We had a similar problem when we moved into our house a few years ago, although I don't think the shrubs were quite as old as yours. Most of the advice out there seems to recommend the 'one in three' method of each year cutting out every third branch of old wood, so in 3 years the plant has regenerated and you have much more vigorous, young wood, which flowers profusely. The main problem that we encountered was that the stems of the shrubs were really like small tree trunks, and so we couldn't practically use the 1 in 3.
In the end, we bit the bullet and for both philadelphus & spirea cut back the main trunk to about 1ft from the ground. By the time 2-3 years had passed, we had masses of frondy new growth and a huge amount of blossom. I can't say whether this would also work for the viburnum, but it certainly did for the other two. As our shrubs are a natural barrier between us & neighbours, we also erected some fancy trellis/screening once they were cut back to obscure the view a little and retain some semblance of privacy.
Hope this helps & good luck with advice for the viburnum. It occurs to me that this may be about to burst into flower or will do in about a month or two, so it may be better to delay until after flowering if possible, to enjoy the blossom.
Best wishes,
Vivien
We had a similar problem when we moved into our house a few years ago, although I don't think the shrubs were quite as old as yours. Most of the advice out there seems to recommend the 'one in three' method of each year cutting out every third branch of old wood, so in 3 years the plant has regenerated and you have much more vigorous, young wood, which flowers profusely. The main problem that we encountered was that the stems of the shrubs were really like small tree trunks, and so we couldn't practically use the 1 in 3.
In the end, we bit the bullet and for both philadelphus & spirea cut back the main trunk to about 1ft from the ground. By the time 2-3 years had passed, we had masses of frondy new growth and a huge amount of blossom. I can't say whether this would also work for the viburnum, but it certainly did for the other two. As our shrubs are a natural barrier between us & neighbours, we also erected some fancy trellis/screening once they were cut back to obscure the view a little and retain some semblance of privacy.
Hope this helps & good luck with advice for the viburnum. It occurs to me that this may be about to burst into flower or will do in about a month or two, so it may be better to delay until after flowering if possible, to enjoy the blossom.
Best wishes,
Vivien
Failta-welcome I would agree with the others about pruning except the Viburnum Tinus as that should be just about to come into flower now, its got a nice scent and it would be a shame to lose the flowers. prune in the spring when the flowers are finished.
Geoff Hamilton used to say to cut a third out to the ground of shrubs each year.
Bren
Geoff Hamilton used to say to cut a third out to the ground of shrubs each year.
Bren
Hi there and welcome.
I'd cut them all right back, be really brutal about it. Then give them all a good feed and watch them be invigorated over the next few years. You may lose flowers but it would be worth it to have healthier plants.
I'd cut them all right back, be really brutal about it. Then give them all a good feed and watch them be invigorated over the next few years. You may lose flowers but it would be worth it to have healthier plants.
Lots of love
Lizzie
Lizzie