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how to be a gardener - The complete online guide BBC Homepage Lifestyle Gardening Part One Part Two Are you signed in? Go here for more information Caring for your garden Tools Watering Feeding Pruning Stopping and deadheading Clipping and trimming Tools for pruning How to prune spring flowering shrubs How to prune bush roses Test your knowledge Go further Plant lists Interactives Glossary Credits Programme information Help with plugins Gardening newsletter Site map
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5 - Pruning Print page
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Pruning What is pruning? Pruning is basically cutting off carefully selected parts of a plant to restrict its size, persuade it to grow in a particular shape, encourage more fruit, flowers or stems, or to remove dead or diseased material. Pruning is always seen as one of those ‘deep mysteries’ of horticulture into which you are ‘initiated’ only when you become an ‘expert’.
Pruned stem © But pruning is neither difficult nor complicated, in fact a lot of it is applying common sense! You just have to follow a few guidelines and check in a book what kind of pruning the particular plant needs. The removal of dead, diseased, broken, crossing and crowded branches is often sufficient for many plants. You simply can’t remember everything there is to know about gardening, so you should never be embarrassed to check any fact in a book. I do it all the time. Visit the Go further section to find a good range of books for beginner gardeners. Watch clip Watch the programme clips on Pruning bush roses , hedges and deadheading . Previous next
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5. Caring for your garden Introduction Tools Watering Feeding Pruning Stopping and deadheading Clipping and trimming Tools for pruning How to prune spring flowering shrubs How to prune bush roses Test your knowledge Go further
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