[Casey76]

Afternoon.

I've just bought a Snowball bush (Vibernum opulous "Rubeum")  It says to prune after flowering, but how hard should I prune?

Thanks

[Trillium]

On a young plant, you want to prune only the flowering tips, which will encourage more branching and flowers for next year. As for the rest of the plant, pruning is best done when dormant and you need to remove crossing branches, branches rubbing against walls/structures, etc. Otherwise you don't need to do much pruning with these plants. Bear in mind that it prefers part shade and frequent moisture to do well.

[catllar]

One of our local gardening gents says that once a plant like that has reached a "good size" and after about 5 years (that's more helpful) you shoud start rejuvenating pruning, removing a third of all the old wood right down to the ground. New shoots come up and in three years you have a whole new shrub.  I guess you'd do it after it's finished flowering.

[Casey76]

Thanks both... I'm still deciding where to put it, but I think I've almost got it.

It is flowering at the moment, so I'll just give it a light trim once the flowers have died off