Quote:
Originally Posted by MacCavity
I have a very old Philadelphus and I know I was meant to cut it back after flowering in June but did not get round to it. It is full of old stems/branches and needs a good reviving, it also has ivy growing up through it. If I hack it back now am I doing more harm than good? Should I wait until next summer? It looks like it has needed this for several years, and hasn't flowered much for the last few years. Although I am posting from France the weather here is pretty much the same as southern England. Anyone got any ideas?
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Philadelphus flowers on last year's wood. So best management is regularly shorten it immediately after flowering, but making sure you retain some of the emerging new shoots lower down, so that those continue to extend during the rest of the summer, and form long flowering shoots for the following year. You are unlikely to kill it by pruning it now. One option for pruning now is to thin it out rather than shorten it. Or maybe carefully retain those of last summer's shoots that are lower down. You can shorten it now, but you'll lose next summer's flowers.