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pruning a hebe?

naomi.gaffneynaomi.gaffney Posts: 24
in Problem solving
Is this a good time to prune a Hebe, it has got very leggy and did not flower very much this year.  How much should I cut it back, thank you in advance.

Posts

  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    edited May 2020
    I read somewhere that "Hebe rarely performs well after hard pruning" and my experience bears that out.  I have one under a window, and cut it down when I couldn't see out:  that was OK and the top greened up again.  Cutting them back rather than down, I find, is a different story.  The one I cut down had a lot of dead twigs lower down, which I cut off, and now it's just a hollow space.  Another one was growing too far over a path; I cut off the overhanging branches, and now I'm just looking at the still
    living, but bare and brown older innards of the bush.  I think the secret is maybe to give them a light trim every year after flowering.

    What I've decided to do with mine is to layer a few of the lower branches into pots, and when those have rooted, to dig out and discard the old bushes, improve the soil and plant the new ones.
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