By Christine Freeburn, Master Gardener
Flowering shrubs are the great “bones” of your garden. They give structure, are generally long lived, offer winter interest and protection for creatures. But most do need to be pruned as they age. When you prune depends on when in the season the shrub blooms. Early bloomers like forsythia, deutzia, flowering almond, purple sandcherry or bridal wreath spireas should be pruned after flowering. Summer flowering shrubs such as hydrangea, dogwood, potentilla, summer flowering spireas, butterfly bush or rose of sharon can be pruned in late winter or early spring. Taking just the spent flowers would be a light prune which can be done when the shrub is young, looking healthy and keeping its natural shape. The practice of cutting out a third of the bush which includes the oldest discoloured branches, branches that cross each other, or dead branches will keep your shrub looking good and producing good bloom. Cutting stems on an angle facing out and just above a bud is a best practice.
An older, established shrub can become wonky looking, have many dead branches, grow too large or stop producing flowers. This is when you can do a drastic prune called coppicing.
Coppicing is a procedure that has been popular in England and Europe for ages. It involves cutting back the shrub to the ground or just above the ground. This stimulates the roots and the plant will send up fresh new shoots which will develop into a renewed shrub.
Many gardeners will coppice their Annabelle hydrangea each year, so it comes up from the ground to become the beautiful late summer flowering shrub.
Coppicing is usually done in late winter or early spring, when the plant is still dormant. Coppiced shrubs should be mulched with a good compost or fertilizer.
Unfortunately, flowering will not happen in the year this pruning is done.
Shrubs that can benefit from this aggressive pruning include:
- Deutzia
- Forsythia
- Elderberry (sambucus)
- Red Osier Dogwood (cornus sericea)
- Smokebush (cotinus)
- Beauty bush (kolkwitzia)
- Ninebark (physocarpus)
- Weigela
- Mock Orange (philadephus)
- Rose of Sharon (hibiscus syriacus)
- Willow (french pussywillow, salix)
Sean James does not recommend coppicing lilac which tend to just send up suckers, or potentilla which are slow to respond when coppiced. Here is a link to show you Sean James coppicing a deutzia
Rejuvenating Shrubs the VERY old fashioned way!
And here is a Toronto Master Gardener you-tube video to show you how this gardener coppiced a sad looking weigela and the great results.
Pruning of any kind can seem intimidating to the beginner. Like any task, the more you do it, the more comfortable you will be. A tip that I use is to stand back and look at your shrub as you prune, to see the overall effect. And remember to research if you are not sure when to prune to avoid pruning off the flower buds that may be setting.
Now get your pruners sharpened and out you go!
But don’t look at the solar eclipse today without proper eye protection!
The Peterborough & Area Master Gardeners 