Cutting back after flowering

[RingoFlamingo]

I've read advice on a couple of the plants I have in my garden to prune after flowering as the flowers come on the previous year's new growth. Makes sense.

My mock orange is pretty much done flowering, and my red jasmine will be soon I think, but if I prune as much as I want to get the size right, I'll be taking most of the greenery off too. That can't be right, can it? Maybe I'll just take the super straggly bits off now but then won't I have the same problem every year?

Any advice would be appreciated, I'm very new to gardening as you can tell! Thanks!

I always cut off the finished flowering stems. Then look at the shape, taking out some of the new straggling branches, it seems to take a couple of seasons to get to the right shape.

If you're seriously wanting to reduce size, it is usually best done by taking out stems at the base, staggered over 3-4 years. They recommend that that is done in winter. If it's simply a matter of cutting stems back, I wouldn't worry about cutting back most of the greenery, at least on the mock orange, I haven't grown red jasmine.

On mature apple trees, you can prune in the summer, which doesn't encourage new growth, rather than winter pruning which encourages new growth. That, I imagine, is why one does "restoration pruning" in the winter - if you've taken a main stem out to the base, you want to encourage new shoots from the base.

Otherwise, prune after flowering is a good rule of thumb. Things that flower on last year's growth tend to flower early in the year, and pruning after flowering gives them time to make new growth, whereas winter pruning just cuts the flowering stems off. Things that flower on this year's growth obviously flower later in the year, so again pruning after flowering works, although if it's late autumn probably better to wait to late winter just before growth restarts.

You need to regard pruning as an annual job. It's not necessary for the health of the plant, but it is necessary if you're trying to keep a plant smaller than its natural size, which is the case for most shrubs in most gardens.

If you prune at the wrong time of year you will get no flowers.

Generally speaking, spring flowering shrubs will flower on the previous year's growth, so you prune them immediately after flowering and then leave them alone for the rest of the year.

Summer & autumn flowering shrubs on the other hand, usually flower on the current year's growth, so are usually pruned in late autumn or early spring before growth begins.

Different species are pruned in different ways too, there are a number of methods. If berries as well as flowers are part of the plant's charm, then you have a really narrow window of opportunity.

The best thing to do is to have a look on the RHS website where it will give information about each species.

Thanks everyone. I will give them a tidy when the last of the flowers have dropped.

I look things up on the RHS site, it will give a pruning group and you can follow the advice for that group.

Do it in stages, cut some stems hard and leave others long.