Advice
RHS Help & Advice
Pruning shrubs for stems, foliage and flowers
A
number of shrubs when pruned hard, produce vigorous growth
which flowers better, produces more colourful stems, or larger
or juvenile foliage. Suitable plants break freely from dormant
buds when cut back. The methods used are referred to as stooling
or coppicing where a plant is regularly cut down to ground
level, and pollarding when the plant is cut leaving a raised
stem.
Ideally, you should grow plants for a year after planting, to allow the root system time to establish.
In the second spring, cut back to 60-90cm (2-3ft) from the ground for pollards or 5-7.5cm (2-3in) for stooled specimens. Sideshoots can be pinched out to encourage further branching or thinned out.
In subsequent years, cut back annually or every few years to the previous stubs. Some plants such as Salix require pruning annually, others such as Corylus and Cotinus between two to five years.
Regular removal of all the wood requires an annual application of a balanced general-purpose fertiliser to support stem and flower growth.
Plants pruned for foliage: Eucalyptus, Catalpa, Paulownia, Cotinus
Plants pruned for stems: Salix, Cornus, Perovskia, Rubus cockburnianus
Plants pruned for flowers: Buddleja