Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
wood from an early stage, they will rejuvenate
easily without the need for major surgery.
Early training to create a well-formed
framework does pay off.
Frost and sun damage are heartbreaking.
What makes it worse is that it is always best to
tolerate the damage until the risk of extreme
heat or cold is over before pruning. Enduring
the sight of burnt and blasted leaves and
stems is unavoidable as pruning will only
encourage new growth. Soft young growth is
even more susceptible to damage than what
was previously killed. Not only that, those
crusty wilted leaves and stems are actually
protecting the live growth beneath them.
They act as an extra layer of insulation
between the surviving plant and the extreme
weather that may still come. Only when the
risks of adverse conditions are over should
this depressing mess be pruned back to
healthy growth.
Never prune into wood that is older than
three years as it may not resprout.
Flowering time and feeding
Always feed your clematis after it has
f flowered. The large-f flowered. clematis such
as
C. x jackmanii
and
C. vitcella
cultivars can
repeat over the season if they are well fed.
Just like modern repeat f flowering roses, they
will rebloom after a light prune in six to
eight weeks.
Woodyplants
When the time is right, after all risk of frost
or extreme heat, prune the damaged wood to
a healthy bud facing in the direction you want
it to grow. Do not prune heavily if it means
the removal of live stems. They may look
ridiculous, but they could possibly burst into
leaf that will enable the plant to recover more
quickly (see 'How plants make their food',
page 5).
Pruningweather-damagedplants
The life of a gardener may not be easy, but
compared to plants we at least have a choice
of location and can avoid bad weather.
Plants vary in their tolerance of wind,
sun and frost. Many gardens are made
up of plants from diverse climates and
there are always some that cannot cope
with our increasingly extreme weather
conditions. Good plant selection for your
area is of course the best place to start;
however, there are extreme conditions that
test even the hardiest and best-selected
plant material.
Evergreens that have partial leaf damage (see
Figure 4.99) can be left unpruned. The leaves
are not attractive, but they are leaves that feed
the plant through photosynthesis, thus
speeding recovery.
Wind can be a problem, and pruning to
reduce wind loading on a plant is illustrated
on page 131, Figure 5.11. The best that can be
done is to thin the canopy and ensure that
the branches are as stable as possible (see
'Branches', page 19).
The leaves will grow unevenly through the
season, but they will grow, and be overgrown
by fresh healthy foliage.
Gardeners in extreme continental climates
should also be wary of sun damage on
