Three plants to prune now before summer ends to make them flourish next year
A GARDENING fanatic has shared what plants you should prune now to make sure you have plenty of them next year.
Louise Findlay-Wilson, the founder of gardening blog Blooming Lucky, curates a to-do list for each month to give her beloved plants the best chance at living for longer.
She dedicated August to pruning three specific plants.
Pruning is where you remove certain parts of a plant, such as branches, buds, or roots, to prevent any disease or damage spreading through your plants.
It also means you can remove the ugly parts to reveal a beautiful and bright bush.
LAVENDER
Louise grows English lavender, or Lavandula angustifolia, in her garden and warned that it needs “firm pruning” in August.
“You must cut back quite hard – as otherwise your plant will become quite ‘leggy’,” she penned.
“But don’t cut back so hard that you are cutting into old wood.”
The gardening whizz described lavender as one of the trickier plants to prune but assured it will be “well worth it” next summer.
“After all you want a nicely shaped lavender, full of healthy flowers next year,” she said.
“Furthermore, come the winter, the snake of neatly clipped lavender will give my garden the illusion that it is tidier than it is.”
WISTERIA
Wisteria is a popular plant for clothing house and garden walls given that it can last up to 100 years and comes in beautiful blue and purple hues.
Louise has it growing on the front of her Cotswold’s cottage but joked that “it starts coming in through the open windows given half the chance”.
She prunes her wisteria twice a year – first in August and then again in January or February.
“Simply trace each long shoot of new wispy growth back to the base and then count along the length of new growth for five buds,” Louise explained.
“Cut after the fifth bud and cut at an angle in the direction that the fifth leaf is growing.
“If you see long stems with old seed pods on them, cut those stems off too, to keep things looking tidy
“Stick the green leafy prunings into your compost heap, they’ll rot down quickly.”
RAMBLING ROSE
Rambling roses have long, flexible and soft shoots which can grow up to 60 feet.
Like lavender and wisteria, the perfect time to prune them is in August.
“If you have a rambling rose, August is also a good time to prune it,” Louise wrote on her blog.
“Essentially cut back a third of the growth that has flowered, then tie any remaining stems to supports.”
The Royal Horticultural Society describes them as “very vigorous” plants that “produce large clusters of usually small, and often fragrant flowers attractive to pollinators”.