Shrub pruning in Earlswood

The right cut at the right time for Earlswood roses, flowering shrubs and borders that have run wild.

Shrub pruning in Earlswood is mostly about timing. Cut a forsythia in autumn and you’ve taken off next spring’s flowers. Leave a buddleia until summer and it’s a tangle of woody stems. We work plant by plant with secateurs and loppers, not a hedge trimmer run over everything.

Plenty of Earlswood’s older gardens have shrubs that went in decades ago and have filled their space twice over. That’s fixable. Most shrubs will take a staged renovation, and all the prunings go away with us. We’ll also tell you honestly which ones aren’t worth saving.

Self-seeded sycamore, bramble and other gatecrashers

Earlswood Common’s woodland is mostly English oak, but the council’s plan notes sycamore and Norway maple in there too, with bramble underneath. Up at St Johns, the conservation area appraisal says sycamore and Norway maple self-seed and crowd out the native trees. Gardens near either get a steady supply of seedlings tucked in at the base of shrubs. Pull them while they’re small. Left a few years, a sycamore inside a shrub becomes a small tree, and then it’s a job for an arborist, which we aren’t. Spotting them early is a normal part of our pruning visits.

Shrub pruning on Earlswood’s clay: what gets cut when

Rich, moist clay pushes a lot of soft growth, so shrubs on the lower ground get big faster than you’d expect. Spring-flowering shrubs such as forsythia and philadelphus are pruned straight after they flower. Late-summer flowerers like buddleia and hardy fuchsia are cut back in early spring. Roses get their main prune in late winter, with deadheading through summer. Evergreens such as photinia are best shaped in late spring or late summer. On the sandier soil towards St Johns growth is slower, so pruning there is lighter and less often.

Pruning in Earlswood: your questions

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

Can you rescue an overgrown shrub without killing it?

Usually. Many shrubs respond well to a renovation spread over two or three winters, taking out a third of the oldest stems each time. A few, like lavender and most conifers, won’t regrow from old wood, and we’ll tell you if replacing it is the better option.

Do you prune trees?

No. We prune shrubs, roses and hedges. For anything that’s properly a tree, especially in the St Johns conservation area where tree work needs six weeks’ notice to the council, you want a qualified arborist.

Can pruning be part of a regular visit?

Yes, and it’s often the easiest way, because hedge and shrub pruning fit neatly into a maintenance round. We’ll prune each shrub when it’s due, so you don’t have to remember which one flowers on old wood.

How much do pruning services cost?

It depends on how many shrubs there are, how overgrown they are and how much waste comes off. We’ll have a look and give you a fixed quote.