the lavatera i've got has put on a huge amount of growth this year, its still flowering its socks off and it must have quadrupled in size at least. I'm guessing its taken up a lot of the tomato feed which i've feed the nearby clematis with fortnightly.

anyways I'm wondering when the best time to prune is, and how hard can it be pruned. As lots of lavatera's i've seen about have lots of woody growth at the base which looks very unsightly imo unless hidden.

Can you prune them in a similiar way to buddelia? My idea was to wait until late winter/early spring when its new growth has started; find the bottom two shoots on each stem and prune above it. Do you have to take account of the main stems in any way,as its got 4 which again i planned to take off near to the bottom, so leaving a short base from which it can grow from and not suffer long bare woody stems

Also do you think it might suffer from a prune is a couple of weeks when its finished flowering, as a number of the stems are blocking light from an azeala which is against a wall and doesn't get any direct sun anyway. The azeala would probably be ok anyways, but just wanted to maximise its light with winter approaching

thanks for your help