Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: Lesleyk on June 08, 2012, 09:33

Title: Viburnum x bodnantense
Post by: Lesleyk on June 08, 2012, 09:33
One of my customers has a rather overgrown Viburnum x bodnantense and she has asked me to prune it.  I think it may be a little too late this year, although I am happy to give it a bash if not.  I think I need to, at least, cut some of the older stems to ground level, but wonder if a hard prune of the whole shrub would be a good idea?  I have read that this should be done over a couple of years so the flowers are not lost for a season, but advice is conflicting.  Can anyone help?  Cheers, Lesley.
Title: Re: Viburnum x bodnantense
Post by: sunshineband on June 08, 2012, 10:16
Really they shouuld be pruned as soon as flowering is finished, otherwise there are few (or no) flowers the next year.

I chopped mine down hard last summer and it has grown back into a well shaped bush again -- no flowers this spring of course. Couldn't wait to do it in two sections as it was so massive and I was fed up with it hanging right over the pond.

The choice is yours (or your customer's) -- hard cut now, no flowers next year, or two years of rejuvenation with half flowering next spring