Gardening Bytes

Posts Tagged ‘Plant Pruning Tips’

As your hydrangea flowers fade and turn brown, remove the flowers if they become unsightly by cutting the stem back to the first pair of buds below the flowerhead. New growth will begin in spring, encourage this growth by cutting out a third of the oldest flower stems just above ground level. Dead stems should be removed from hydrangeas every year at the base of the plant. When hydrangeas reach at least 5 years old, you can remove one third of the older stems down to the ground each summer, which will revitalize the shrub.

Heaths and Heathers are sturdy sun loving, acid soil shrubs that add structure to gardens year round and, depending on the variety, provide beautiful blooms and vivid leaf color in different seasons all year long. After your heaths and heathers finish their bloom the flower buds brown and fade, which is the ideal time to prune back the shrubs. A neat trim below the flower blooms and cutting off bare stems above the main portion of the plant will help shape them for continued healthy growth. In the colder climate zones, prune heaths and heathers in the spring. If you do not trim back spent heath and heather flowers the shrubs may become spindly looking with sparse leaves as it grows. Trim back farther to regenerate the shrub when it is growing poorly. Do not trim back too far into the main woody portion of the heather shrub because it may not regenerate new growth.

Learn more about pruning heaths and heathers here: Heaths and Heathers Nursery

Passionflower vines are a very hardy vine that produce growth during the warming summer months. Here on the north coast these sun loving vines do surprisingly well with the foggy weather. Trimming back the vines in spring once severe frosts have passed is a good idea to keep the vines tidy and from becoming too overgrown during summer.

Trim passionflower greenery back close to the woody vines so there is good leaf coverage still over the vines but trimmed back. A hedge trimmer will do the trick for trimming back leaves. A trim once in spring will help keep the growth of the vines under control through the summer when the vines produce rampant growth of leaves and produces masses of flowers. Keep up on watering passionflower vines during warm weather, these are thirsty vines that need a minimum of 1 to 1.5 inches of water a week. From my experience, more water is better for creating the most flowers on the vines. Passionflower vines need a regular deep watering at least once a week for good flowering and healthy growth during the growing season.

The Butterfly Bush is a large shrub with over one hundred species. The majority of the species are shrubs that can generally grow from 6 to 10 feet tall, while tree varieties can grow up to 30 feet tall. My Butterfly Bushes grow rapidly from 8 to 12 feet tall after pruning and grow well in my coastal climate as well as in hot climates in the U.S.

Pruning is very important for Butterfly bushes since they can become gangly and tall, and yearly pruning helps encourage flowering on new wood. Prune Butterfly Bushes back in Spring past danger of severe frost to 3 to 4 feet tall. When pruning cut the branches back to 2 inches above a new bud. Young plants should be in place a year or two, developing a sturdy woody trunk before you begin pruning the shrub.