FOR the uninitiated, to cut a healthy plant is to damage it. Lopping entire branches off a tree with a saw or removing a spent flower by hand may first appear to do harm, but it must remembered that plants are not like humans.
These superheroes are not only capable of withstanding a major amputation but in many cases the loss of a limb or two actually does them a lot of good and stimulates strong, fresh growth. Some plants, such as Buddleia, Escalonia and Fuchsia, tolerate a hard prune, whereas you need to more careful and judicious around the likes of lavender .
The key to pruning – for that is what the art of targeted horticultural cutting is called – is timing.
Most pruning is carried out in spring, just as many shrubs and trees are reaching the end of winter dormancy. Sometimes gardeners prune to keep a plant in a shape they prefer, while on other occasions it’s to get rid of last year’s dead or diseased wood.
In the main, a timely chop invigorates a plant, prompting a rush of growth. After a few weeks, you’ll be wondering why you were ever apprehensive with the secateurs, loppers or pruning saw.
A much less precise form of pruning is employed on perennials during the growing season, when once again the urge to cut your plants seems like anathema.
The most well-known of the summer slice-throughs is the ‘Chelsea chop’. So named because it coincides with the eponymous RHS flower show that takes place in late May-early June, the ‘Chelsea chop’ is designed to curb and control growth, ensuring ordinarily leggy perennials don’t grow too tall to sustain their own weight come late summer.
Especially appropriate for prairie plants like Echinacea purpurea, Helenium and Phlox paniculata, it will result in smaller flowers but in greater numbers.
This somewhat counterintuitive technique works because the removal of the top shoots allows the usually inhibited sideshoots to branch out and prosper. Used in conjunction with regular feeding and watering, it also keep your beds and borders looking tidier.
You can also take the clippers to your early summer flowering perennials in August. The likes of oriental poppies, delphiniums and geraniums, most of which will be well past peak-flowering by this stage, can be cut back hard to encourage new growth and a flush of late flowers later in the season.
Similar to the Chelsea chop, this involves the unceremonious cutting of the plants close to their base. Clearing the foliage also provides an opportunity to weed around them, maximising the light and nutrients they receive and boosting their chances of recovery.
Dispose of the cut material in the usual manner, which for sustainable gardeners should be a compost heap or bin.
Arguably the crudest form of pruning is deadheading, which simply means removing fading or dead flowers. Ordinarily carried out by pinching between finger and thumb, deadheading will help keep your plants, particularly annuals, looking neater, while also encouraging further flowering.
When a flower is on the wane, the plant’s energies are directed into producing seed to ensure a new generation. Remove the dead head and it instead begins to make new a new flower.
Deadheading is generally good for any plant’s health, so the only flowers you should consider leaving are those whose seed you wish to harvest or those which provide food for the birds.
