Plant Care

All the plants you have in your garden and also inside the house, should be cared for correctly. This will ensure you get the best displays and long-life from them.

Pruning

Pruning Climbers

Climbers are versatile plants that will find their way up walls, fences, posts and trees. Some are self-supporting while others need tying onto supports.

Most climbers need some sort of shape training if they are to look their best.

They also require regular pruning to encourage vigorous flowering growth and to keep them to a manageable size. There are also many shrubs that can be trained as wall plants. These will also require pruning to control their growth.

A brief range of pruning guides follows:

Honeysuckle

Use wires, trellis or a similar support to help climbing honeysuckle. If space is limited, prune annually to keep growth under control. Remove straggly growth after flowering. Late summer varieties are best pruned in spring.

Virginia creeper

Plants of this genus support themselves with sticky discs at the ends of tendrils. They are all inclined to grow upwards rather than sideways and may cover a large area unless pruned on a regular basis. Reduce growth annually in winter by cutting out some of the older, overcrowded stems. Shortening outer shoots will encourage wider coverage. Remember to prune growth back from gutters, windows and downpipes in winter and again in the growing season if necessary.

Ivy

Ivy will cover any wall unassisted. You can speed up the process by training some long growths along the foot of the wall. No pruning is needed in the early stages. Once the area has been covered, trim shoots every April and sometimes again in summer.