Pruning garden

Pruning garden plants in winter

By our gardening writer, Gill Maccabe

Almost as soon as the clocks go back, many gardeners rush to start cutting and tidying up to prepare for the colder months. But why? Plants don’t like being bare in the winter any more than we do, and neither do the hedgehogs and other winter animals that need ground cover in which to hibernate.

So, if you haven’t done so already, walk around your garden and make a list of everything that can wait.

Gardening books can be very useful, however it is hard to know which gardening zone to refer to in our Island, where one minute we can be belted by 56mph salt winds and the next suffocate in tropical temperatures. So, always stick to a bit of local knowledge, which in our case is our gardener who has helped me compile this list of how to maintain and prune five of my favourite garden plants to ensure luscious growth next year, weather permitting.

Wisteria

These delicious deciduous woody stemmed twisting climbers are a feature of many south-facing Jersey granite properties, giving the houses an appealing myopic air with violet covered blooms tumbling over the window frames like giant eyelash extensions. They can take up to seven years to flower, but if your soil is nitrogen-rich, you may find they process an excess of vegetation at the expense of flowers. Regular and timely pruning can help to increase the flowering potential of the plant. Experts at the RHS recommend pruning twice a year in July or August, and then again in January or February.

Cut back the ‘whippy’ green shoots of the current year’s growth to five or six leaves after flowering in July or August. This controls the wisteria and prevents it getting into guttering and windows. In winter, cut back the same growth to two or three buds in January or February when the plant is dormant and leafless, this also ensures the flowers will not be obscured by the leaves.

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Hydrangea

I always watch with interest the evolution of the hydrangeas in our eponymously named avenue as the pinks and blues fade to autumnal hues. This year they have been particularly beautiful in shades of rust and bronze. How I adore my mophead macrophylias. I always leave the old flower heads on over winter; pick handfuls of them for the house and for friends, where they last for weeks drying gently in a vase without water. Pruning is an important part of their care however, and come Spring I give them a ruthless chop and then cut back one or two of the oldest stems at the base to encourage the production of new replacement growth.

Nepeta Catarai (Catmint)

If you are lucky enough to share your life with a cat then you will be loath to prune your nepeta catarai; the temporary euphoria they get from the blooms has been likened to marijuana in adults. However, to get the lavender-like blooms to last through the spring and summer, you are going to have to prune it back sometime. Do this as soon as the flowers go totally, which could be December or even January if your garden is sheltered, then cut back into the base of the plant. Buy some Feliway spray or put dried catnip, from pet shops, in an old sock for him to play with until the purple blooms grace your borders again.

Salvias and Verbenas

The perennial salvias are very easy to look after, they are hardy but do need pruning each year. I do mine around April after the last frosts have gone and cut them back hard down to their last shooting node. You should see new shoots growing away from the base.

In a shady part of the garden, Verbena Bonariensis will carry on standing upright for months and provide winter height and colour in the garden. They suffer if you cut them back in the autumn, so cut back the old growth in the spring and watch the new shoots bounce back with increased vigour.

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Roses

We have a beautiful white scented David Austen climbing rose which has been moved twice in recent years, eventually stretching its legs and settling into life against a north facing hedge.

We decided to prune it in the autumn so that the whippy shoots could be shortened before the strong winter winds blow them about and damage them. The main stems are fanned out all ready for their spring buds. Try to prune shoots by two thirds of their length and reposition any that have grown to rub against others. If an old stem has become less productive, prune it back to a healthy shoot.

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