Yesterday, I found time to do a quick 10 minutes of pruning that will ultimately give me some extra colour in my garden in a month or so – well worth the time! I’m sure the butterflies and bees will appreciate this too. Some plants if pruned after flowering can give a second flush of flowers in the same growing season. In my garden this has worked well for cirsium, nepata, and hardy geraniums.

Nepata, catmint, I have pruned successfully like this for many years now. In the photos above you can see the before, Right bottom, and after Right top. I will post a photo when it gets back into full bloom.

The larger photo on the left shows my verbena Bonariensis that was extremely pot bound when I bought it and did not successfully come back to life after planting. You will notice that new side shoots have begun to grow. I pruned each stem just above growth like this and I am sure the plant will kick into life now. It is now no longer wasting energy and water in trying to support dead stems. I hope to see it come fully into flower in a month or so too.

Soon my wisteria will have long whippy new growth and my secateurs will be out once again! I really find pruning quite therapeutic and wholeheartedly recommend it.