Monty Don shares plants you need to prune now to encourage ‘repeat-flowering’
Gardening expert Monty Don has shared which plants should be pruned before the end of July. According to the expert, pruning can help promote new growth.
Pruning helps to encourage vigorous growth as well as helps to control the shape of the plant or shrub.
It aims to remove dead, diseased and damaged branches to promote healthy growth.
According to gardening expert’s Monty Don's latest blog, there are many things in the garden which need to be pruned before the end of July.
Apples and pears
Monty wrote: “Pruning apples and pears at this time of year in summer is very useful for trained forms like espaliers, cordons or fans or mature trees that have become too large or crowded because, unlike winter pruning, done when the tree is dormant, this hard cutting back will not stimulate vigorous regrowth.
“Unless you are training a new particular shoot, remove all this year’s growth back a couple of pairs of leaves being careful not to remove any ripening fruits.”
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If you are training the fruit to a particular shape, tie loose growth in as you go, Monty recommended.
Cutting it back also allows light and air onto the fruit which is ripening and stops the tree from becoming too crowded.
Early flowering perennials
This involves the pruning of oriental poppies, delphiniums and hardy geraniums, which can all be pruned this month.
Monty recommended cutting these back to the ground to encourage “fresh growth” and “repeat-flowering” in a couple of months.
The expert added: “This also creates space for tender annuals and perennials in the border.
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“Remove all cut material to the compost heap, weed around the base of the plants, water if necessary and do not plant too close to them so that they have light and space to regrow and flower again at the end of summer.”
Rambling roses
Monty advised gardeners to keep deadheading roses as the petals fade to encourage repeat flowering, but some have finished flowering for this year, including rambling.
These should be pruned as soon as they have finished flowering. The TV gardener added: “If you are in doubt as to whether your rose is a climber or a rambler, ramblers tend to be much more vigorous and always have a mass of small flowers that never repeat once they have finished.
“Many ramblers are best grown into a tree and these can be left unpruned apart from straggly, unkempt, growth.
“However if space is limited or you are training the rose in any way, this year’s new shoots should be tied in or cut back according to the circumstance.
“Remove any damaged or very old shoots, cutting them back to the ground.” Gardeners should also tie in any loose growth and mulch well.
Currants
Once red and white currants have been harvested, it’s a good idea to give them a summer prune, removing any new growth that is crowding the centre.
Once cut back by a third, light and air will be allowed in to encourage the wood to ripen and spurs to form which will carry next year’s fruit.
Blackcurrants can also be pruned, removing up to a third of each bush, immediately after harvest.
