I took the Secateurs to my Cornus plants at the weekend.
I’ve got a few varieties growing among the birch trees in my garden. There’s a red stemmed Cornus sibirica ‘alba’, a purple black stemmed Cornus alba ‘Kesselringii’, a lime green stemmed Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea’ and a bright salmon orange red Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’.
They’ve been planted 4-5 years now and some were pruned hard last spring. This year I’ve taken out the oldest stems right back to the ground to encourage plenty more bright fresh growth and to rejuvenate the plants. It’s a case of being cruel to be kind.
Once the stems have a few years age to them they lose their vibrancy and presence in the garden. So now I have some cuttings material soaking in water and my plants will quickly throw up new stems to replace the old ones that have been removed.
Another group of plants that got the chop at the weekend were my summer fruiting raspberries. These fruit on last year’s wood so it is no good cutting them to the ground now or you will lose this year’s harvest. Instead they need tipping.
Cut off the top six inches or so and tidy them up.
My autumn raspberries are still in the cold frame. I was sent some lovely plug plants of Autumn Bliss Turbo Charged Raspberries from Gardening Direct. (www.gardeningdirect.co.uk; 0844 884 6535). So I potted them up into small pots of top-notch multipurpose compos and have been growing them on in the cold frame. They are looking really healthy and will be planted out soon.
If you have autumn fruiting raspberries already established, now is the time to prune them to the ground.
