Hard pruning mock orange

[apacheuk]

I have mock orange (philadelphus) in the garden that has massively overgrown, currently about 5 or 6 meters in height and overhanging in to the neighbour's garden too.

Seems a lot of old, possible dead wood in there. Will my mock orange survive a hard pruning?

Mine did. We cut it completely back to around 2ft. It didn't flower the first year but is fully in bloom now (and over 3m I reckon).

Yes - they're really tough.
We were going to get rid of one, chopped down to about a foot to make it easier to dig out but never got round to it. Grown back to about 7' within a year or too and flowering.

Yes, apparently the best time to hard prune it is in July, luckily enough, after it has finished flowering.

Thanks, good to know if we get too carried away with pruning it will grow back. Luckily it's just lost it flowers so can start pruning soon

Hello Apacheuk,

Have a look at the following two weblinks. The RHS adviser taking out one in five of the oldest stems each year. Remove the oldest right back to the ground. You will be able to identify the oldest stem by their thickness i.e. the thicker they are the older they. Once pruned mock orange with produce new shoots from soil level.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/philadelphus/growing-guide

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-philadelphus-mock-orange/#

Happy gardening
TheSustainableGardener

They love being chopped back. I hard pruned mine and it went crazy the next year and put on another a metre of growth.