It’s time to prune your late-flowering shrubs including Buddleja davidii, Caryopteris and hardy fuchsias.
These shrubs are a mainstay of the summer garden, producing waterfalls of flower for months at a time, from mid-summer onwards. They’re also incredibly easy to grow, requiring little care other than a spring cut-back to keep them young and flowering well.
All these shrubs flower best on the growth they will make this year, so you can cut them back really hard, removing all last year’s old branches in one fell swoop. You’ll need top-quality, sharp tools including secateurs, loppers and a pruning saw – you’ll find a selection of reliable tools from leading brands on sale here at our garden centre in Co. Limerick.
Prune out all the branches almost to the ground, leaving just one or two buds on each stem and always cutting just above a leaf joint. It may seem drastic, but you’re encouraging lots of fresh new growth – and that means loads of new flowers, too. Once you’ve finished, water if it’s dry, then spread a feed of slow-release fertiliser such as pelleted poultry manure and top it off with a generous mulch of garden compost or well-rotted farmyard manure to help them recover and bounce back into exuberant growth.