Tidying up a wiejela

I give mine a trim after it flowers every year, it's my favourite shrub, sometimes if you're lucky you get a second flowering, not as prolific as the first but still beautiful.

Oh thanks for that advice - I will grab my secateurs and leap forth into the garden!

My pruning book advises "cutting back flowered stems to strong upright shoots below the faded flowers. Cut out at the base one or two old stems to maintain a balance between mature and young wood". I have one but it's only a baby yet!

I have just done mine. I keep the bush small as it is next to steps. This year, for fun, I shaped it into a cube with shears! It never seems to mind a haircut.

This is all most helpful - many thanks.

I leapt out with my secateurs and it pissed down! - so it will have to wait till tomorrow now.

I think you are supposed to cut it well back after flowering, taking out what has flowered and keeping young shoots from well down the main stem. The shoots it makes this summer will flower next year, and without the old branches to feed it will put everything into new growth now.

I used always to do that, and got a good show each year from a reasonably tidy plant, but mine has been neglected. Time to be drastic.

If you take a cutting from one of the new non-flowering shoots, you could have another bush in a year or two.

OK, so I take a cutting........then what do I do with it!!?? - I am a true novice!

Cut 4-6 inches off the tip of a non-flowering shoot. Trim off some of the leaves, leaving the top two or three. It needs to be naked and leafless where it goes into the compost. Push it into a pot of compost (you can dip it first into a hormone rooting powder or gel from the gardening centre if you want to increase the chances of it taking but that is not essential) Then keep it watered and give it TLC.

You can put three to five cuttings round the edge of the pot. Keep the pot somewhere reasonably sheltered until the plants are growing. When they start to crowd each other, you can move them to their own pots and eventually plant them out into the garden.

This works with most flowering shrubs. It is worth trying anyway. Plants for nothing!

The late beloved of many of us, Jeff Hamilton, used to like one/third pruning. He said it wasn't as drastic as cutting the whole shrub down to to the base.

A lot depends on the shrub, and whether you want to encourage more growth generally or more flowers. Some flower on new shoots, some on last year's growth. The net has many sites with pruning advice for different shrubs.

New glasses needed i think, i am sure this title of this thread read 'Tidying up a vajazzle'

Pruning it, taking cuttings, propagating . . .

GRANNYPIPER maybe "Tidying up a vajazzle" should be in the beauty or medical threads. Come to think of it looking outside mine could probably benefit from a pruning!

Liaise steady hands will be needed

I took the cuttings and they are looking good so far!

Any recommendations for underplanting roses?