Pruning Winter Jasmine and Ivy

Latimer · April 2020

Hi all, me again with more questions!

So i inherited the above from the previous owner. The Pyracantha is vicious but i love the berries so I'll keep that, I'm going to clear a lot of the lower branches so i can under plant and just tidy it up.

I have a love hate relationship with Ivy. When it's climbing neatly up the outside of a cottage in the Cotswolds it looks lovely, but up close I find it quite untidy and messy. I also love it when it had small neat little flowers but dislike the big leathery ones.

I also like the Winter Jasmine but as you can see it is just looking really really messy.

So my question is, can i hack both of these basically back to the ground and start again? I obviously want to fill in that hole in the middle of the fence so would like to retrain them to cover that.

I am also thinking of planting one of the Clematis i picked up the other week to add some spring/summer colour.

Thanks all.

Lizzie27 · April 2020

Yes, you can hack both back quite severely. I would start with the ivy and pull off/out as much as you can. Once you've got a space, you could try training and tying in the winter jasmine across the fence. It basically wants to grow upwards, then it cascades downwards. If you tidy off the bits you think flowered this year, you will get more flowers next year as it flowers on new wood.
You could also prune that Pyracantha so it's flatter on the fence and train/tie that in sideways as well. (Tough gloves needed!)

However I don't think there's enough room to plant a clematis and the ivy will always win - I find it's almost impossible to kill. I know it's good for wildlife, especially the flowers you don't like but as it grows well in most places, there's certainly no shortage of it around.

Latimer · April 2020

Lizzie27 said:

Yes, you can hack both back quite severely. I would start with the ivy and pull off/out as much as you can. Once you've got a space, you could try training and tying in the winter jasmine across the fence. It basically wants to grow upwards, then it cascades downwards. If you tidy off the bits you think flowered this year, you will get more flowers next year as it flowers on new wood.
You could also prune that Pyracantha so it's flatter on the fence and train/tie that in sideways as well. (Tough gloves needed!)

However I don't think there's enough room to plant a clematis and the ivy will always win - I find it's almost impossible to kill. I know it's good for wildlife, especially the flowers you don't like but as it grows well in most places, there's certainly no shortage of it around.

Thanks @Lizzie27. I'll do just that. Once I've cleared some of the ivy I'll get in at l and take a look at the Jasmine. Is it fairly obvious what's old wood?

Pruning Winter Jasmine and Ivy

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