leesug wrote:
Hi all
First post so apologies if my question is a little daft.

As I am off for a few days, and the weather is looking decent, am I OK
giving some of the shrubs I have acquired a decent prune. They are very
well established (20 years or so) but have been left for a couple of
years and so are quite over grown.

If I do not do it now then I may not get chance again till Easter
Thanks
Lee





Lee,

We had a nice day yesterday (70 degrees) and I did some pruning and
cleanup that I normally don't do until spring.

The first rule of pruning is to know the blooming habit of the plant.
Some bloom on the new growth, some bloom on the previous years growth,
some, it does not matter, you can cut them back to almost ground or any
level you cat to. With non-blooming shrubs it really doesn't matter and
deep pruning now (if you need to) with result in a quicker recovery when
the weather warms up.

Since you have well established shrubs you can cut them back a good
deal. A deep cut back may make them look fairly poor this year but you
are doing the cutback for the future and they will recover within a year
or so.
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)



To see pictures from my garden visit http://members.iglou.com/brosen

Digital Camera - Pentax *ist DL

Remove NO_WEEDS_ in e-mail address to reply by e-mail