"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
I was planning on a harsh pruning of my small garden near Dublin,
which has grown rather wild, but I was surprised to read here
that this was not a good time of year for such action.

Is that really true?
I always thought that it was better to wait until leaves had fallen,
and the shape of things could be seen more clearly.

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Hi Tim,

It depends hugely upon what you are pruning, and why. Apples are pruned in
winter, except for trained (cordon, espalier, etc) apples, which are pruned
in summer. Reason: winter pruning promotes lots of new growth; summer
pruning limits it.
All prunus trees and shrubs (but esp. plums and cherries) must be
spring/summer pruned in good weather to prevent Silver Leaf disease entering
the cuts.

You really need to know what your plants are. If you do know, by all means
post a list here and we will try (I am bound to need help!) to guide you.
Otherwise, invest in The RHS/Dorling Kindersley Pruning & Training guide.
The ISBN is 1-4053-0073-6. If you can't afford it (£19.99 when I bought
it), then I imagine that Trinity College, Dublin has a good library.

Spider