Cutting in later seasons

Whether light pruning, shaping, preservation or deadwood cutting, plants have to be cut back even in autumn and winter. In this way, for example, wild shoots are pruned back on shrubs which have been left to grow unattended. Your plants will show their gratitude in spring through good growth and many flowers.

Pruning to ensure strong growth

Many flowering shrubs which blossom in spring such as the forsythia or the spiraea produce the buds for the following year in the summer/autumn of the previous one. If these plants are cut back in autumn, then they will produce fewer flowers the following year. Garden hibiscus shrubs or marsh-mallow plants, for example, require pruning in September in order to promote growth. On the day you cut back your plants, the weather conditions should be as dry as possible and temperatures should still be over 10 degrees Celsius in order to prevent fungi gaining access to the cut areas. Cutting back the shoots at the edge of the plants more severely than those in the centre will create an attractive shape. It is important that you always work using good, sharp secateurs. This saves your energy and protects the plants against injuries to the branches.

Shaping and preservation cutting for a good harvest

The following applies for fruit trees: regular pruning keeps them fit and ensures a good harvest. However, it is dependent on the respective plant variety when exactly it should be cut back. Whatever the case, the Pruning Loppers is not to be used until three or four days in a row have gone by without frost.
Deadwood and branches which grow out vertically or transverse to other branches are removed.  The treetops are also thinned out. This allows sunlight in over the following spring, prevents fungal infestations, promotes budding and allows fruits to ripen better.
Usually, pome, stone and soft fruit trees are cut back in summer or in late winter. Exceptions: Peach trees are not cut back until April or May. Sweet cherries are pruned in summer, directly after harvesting.

Cutting back deadwood in autumn

In autumn, a last round of maintenance work is conducted in our shrub beds. Sick or dead sections of plants are cut out. And shrubs which frequently produce seeds, such as marguerite perennials, can be cut back down to the ground. This will prevent excessive propagation.
Otherwise, the seed stems or hollow stems of shrubs should be left standing over the winter. They provide the perfect refuge for birds and insects. Bizarre-looking seed heads are still an eye-catcher in your garden bed in the cold season – above all when covered with snow.

Pruning roses

On roses, the long, disruptive shoots in particular are cut back in autumn. But it is not necessary to cut them accurately to the bud: the shoots will be cut back again in spring anyway.
However, if your garden features densely-planted rosebeds, pruning them in autumn makes sense. Often the shoots become densely intertwined that it is impossible to provide the rose shrub bases with sufficient winter protection. Therefore, the entwined rose shoots are cut back a little, after which their bases can be protected using compost soil.