When to cut back for winter
Rach McBride
Posts: 5
Hi all,
I've got to that depressing time of the year when I've got to think about cutting my herb garden and shrubs/roses back before winter.
I have a HUGE white buddleia that started out inches high 2 years ago, and is now well over 6ft tall in height and width and has almost finished flowering - we've had really warm weather up here in NW Lancs but the bees and butterflies are long gone, rosemary and sage plants that are huge and now past their best, also got plants that I've put in this year and have flowered well in my shaded front garden - lupins, a lovely rose bush and foxgloves, also a fuschia that is still flowering.
I've also got some plants that my Dad gave me last autumn - we have no idea what they are, but they've flourished in the back garden, which gets sunshine all day.
Wish I could post some pics but don't know how..
All ideas welcome.
Thanks, Rach
Posts
Start by clicking on the camera icon in the top right hand corner of the box you post in Rach. That's where you can upload photos. They have to be under about 2.5 MB just now - anything bigger won't load so you may have to resize.
Buddleias can be damaged by the wind as they get top heavy, so you can take some of the branches back by a third or so. That helps a lot. I've just done mine.
Rosemary is evergreen so only needs a trim as and when needed. They tend to get a bit rough after a few years anyway, but you can take cuttings or sow from seed to get new plants. Things like foxgloves and lupins can be cut back when all the stems have died back, although many people leave them over winter to provide a place for insects to shelter or hibernate. Sage doesn't survive here in the wet, but you would normally just leave it and tidy in spring if it's too big. Chopping back now may leave it vulnerable to frost, but it would depend on where you are and how cold it gets etc.
Sorry - don't grow roses or fuchsias, but someone else will be able to advise on those. You'll get advice on your other shrubs once they've been identified
Last edited: 05 October 2016 17:30:24
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Hi Rach, your rose won't need cutting back until the spring, but even then it really depends what sort of rose. With many modern shrubs, floribundas and so on, you'd be looking at pruning in March, back to healthy buds. But once-flowering roses need pruning after flowering. Neither kind should be pruned now. You'll stimulate new growth which will be frosted.
Similarly, as the fuchsia is flowering right now, don't cut it back. Do you know if it is hardy?
Tender fuchsias need taking out in winter once they have been hit by the frost. If you want to overwinter it, it then needs to be stored somewhere cold but frostfree to induce dormancy. You could pot it up and keep in an unheated greenhouse or similar.
Hardy varieties can be left in the ground. The big shrubby sorts that you see at the seaside (Fuchsia magellanica) don't need cutting back but if you want to, you can take out some larger branches in spring right to the base. Leave it until April otherwise regrowth will be frosted. The smaller hardy sorts: cut these back to near ground level in April and feed.
No action needed for these right now. I'd think early October is a bit early anyway for cutting anything back, even your lupins, though you can take off the flowered shoots from as soon as the flowers are over. Foxgloves are biennial plants, and once they have flowered, you just wait for them to set seed, then pull the plant out.
With borderline hardy subshrubs--rosemary and sage, also lavender, cistus, and cotton lavender--don't touch anything now! You will end up with brown stumps and most likely dead plants. You may well need to start over with these from cuttings or new small plants if they have seriously outgrown their space. You need to maintain these then from year to year by clipping them over soon after flowering (i.e. in the summer). Never cut into the brown wood, just the new young growth, to keep the whole plant compact. Mature plants cannot be cut hard back. They will not resprout from the base. You can tell how far you can go back from where the stems stop being soft and bendy and begin to be hard, and by this time of year, that is most of the plant.
The Buddleia-there are different ways of managing this. I agree with Fairygirl about the best way to tackle yours. It is also possible to cut the whole plant back to the base in spring and it will regrow several shoots with very large flowerheads. But I'd opt for cutting out one third of the big shoots right to the base--no pussy footing or you end up with six-inch stumps! A lot of ladybirds and lacewings can overwinter on its dead heads, so you can leave them standing until the spring.