Things to Prune During May

It’s that time of the month again when I give you the list of things that you can happily prune in the garden.  At the end of this list I have also added some plants which can be trained onto supports or those that need tips pinching out.  As April was a cold month a lot of shrubs are late in flowering so for those that need pruning after flowering you may just have to be a little more patient but on the plus side you’ll get blooms for a longer period of time!

Prune

Brachyglottis “Sunshine” – Hard prune neglected plants otherwise prune to maintain a neat shrub.

Clematis (Spring Flowering Only) – These are late in flowering this year so please don’t prune until the blooms are over – shorten stems after flowering and thin if heavily congested.

Euonymus – Cut back long shoots and trim to keep in shape.

Forsythia – Again due to the cold weather this is another late flowering shrub, once it has finished flowering prune to shape and remove old stems.

Jasmine (Winter Flowering) – Remove oldest stems at the base of plant, trim new growth.

Train

Chaenomeles (Japenese Quince) – Train new shoots onto supports.

Clematis (all varieties) – Train shoots onto supports.

Fig – Train and tie onto supports.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera) – Train new shoots onto supports.

Jasmine – Tie in new shoots.

Raspberry (Summer fruiting) – Train new canes to wires.

Rose (Climbing) – Tie in new shoots onto supports to create a framework.

Wisteria – Tie in new shoots being careful not to knock off the flowers.

Pinch Out

Fuschia (Hardy) – Tips of new shoots can now be pinched off this produces more branches with more flowers.