Shrub pruning in Bletchingley

Pruning timed to each plant, for cottage gardens, walled plots and newer borders.

Shrub pruning in Bletchingley is mostly about timing. Cut a forsythia in March and you lose the flowers. Cut it straight after flowering and it comes back better. Older gardens in the village often have established shrubs and wall plants that reward a patient hand and punish a quick go with the hedge trimmer.

We prune plant by plant, at the right point in each one’s year, and take every cutting away. Our shrub pruning services cover roses, climbers, flowering shrubs, evergreens and perennials. We don’t do tree work, so a tree that needs lifting or reducing is a job for an arborist.

Wall shrubs and climbers on Bletchingley’s old walls

Brick and stone walls are a big part of the village, and they’re brilliant for wall-trained plants, holding the day’s warmth and sheltering whatever grows against them. They also suffer if a climber is left to push behind the coping or into soft mortar. The local sandstone is soft stuff, which is partly why so little of it is left exposed on houses. We tie in and thin climbers so they sit on the wall, not in it, and prune wisteria twice a year.

Pruning on dry, sandy ground

Shrubs on greensand put on less growth than the same plant on clay, and they feel a drought sooner. So we’re gentler. Hard renovation is best done in late winter, spread over two or three years, and only on plants that are coping. Roses get their main prune in late winter and deadheading through summer. A mulch after pruning helps more here than almost anywhere, because it holds water in the sand.

Pruning in Bletchingley: your questions

Anything else, just ring. You’ll speak to the people who do the work.

Can you bring an overgrown shrub back without killing it?

Usually. Most tough shrubs can be cut back by about a third each winter for two or three years. Some, like lavender, won’t regrow from old wood, and we’ll tell you honestly if one is past saving.

If I search for pruning services near me, will you come out for a few shrubs?

Yes. A handful of shrubs and a climber is a perfectly good visit, and we’re only about five and a half miles away in Horley. Lots of people add pruning to a regular maintenance visit so it happens at the right time without them thinking about it.

Do you prune trees as well?

No, we leave trees to arborists. Shrubs, roses, climbers and hedges are ours, and we’ll say so if something in your garden is really a tree job. In the conservation area that work needs six weeks’ notice to the council first.