Monty Don shares tips for pruning fruit trees
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The bold flowers and impressive colours can bloom for many weeks and flower in the summer, growing on the previous year’s growth. There are several types of hydrangeas in the UK, including mophead and lacecap and it is important to prune them to “produce a better display” in the garden.
The RHS said: “Mophead and lacecap hydrangeas will bloom satisfactorily with little attention, but regular pruning encourages new and vigorous growth that can produce a better display.”
Mopheads are identified by their full heads of petals while lacecaps have tiny flowers in the centre of the bloom, with an outer border of large petals.
Most pruning can be carried out in early spring, a perfect job to do in the garden now.
However, the climbing hydrangea needs to be pruned after flowering in the summer months.
To prune hydrangeas, the RHS recommends dead-heading them first.
They said: “Dead blooms on mophead hydrangeas can, in mild areas, be removed just after flowering, but it is best to leave them on the plant over winter to provide some frost protection for the tender growth buds below.
“Remove the dead flowerhead in early spring, cutting back the stem to the first strong, healthy pair of buds down from the faded bloom.
“Lacecaps are hardier, and the faded flowerhead can be cut back after flowering to the second pair of leaves below the head in order to prevent seed developing, which saps energy from the plant.”
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To prune established hydrangeas, gardeners can cut one or two of the oldest stems at the base to encourage the production of new, replacement growth.
The RHS said the new growth will be “more floriferous”.
They added: “Poor or neglected plants can be entirely renovated by cutting off all the stems at the base.
“However, this will remove all the flowers for that summer, and the new stems will not bloom until the following year.”
To prune the climbing hydrangea, gardeners should have overlong shoots cut back as soon as it stops flowering.
According to the RHS, most flowers appear towards the top of the plant so gardeners should try to leave this un-pruned if possible.
The experts added: “Established plants will tolerate hard pruning in spring, but extensive cutting back all in one go is likely to reduce flowering for the next couple of summers.
“To prevent flower loss, stagger drastic pruning over three or four years, reducing the size of the plant gradually.”
Another popular variety, the hydrangeas errata, can be pruned in the same way as mophead and lacecap hydrangeas.
Hydrangea paniculata and hydrangea arborescen are treated differently and the only “essential work” in spring is to remove dead wood.
These flower more when pruned back to a framework of branches.
The RHS said: “Each spring, cut back last year’s stems a pair of healthy buds to maintain a permanent framework.
“To produce larger flower panicles on strong, upright branches, hard prune to the lowest pair of healthy buds, creating a low framework of branches.”
If there is any frost damage in spring, the experts recommended pruning back damaged shoots just above the first undamaged pair of buds.
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