Pruning is all about timing. Believe me, I’ve learned this the hard way. Cut at the wrong moment, and you can ruin next year’s display, or worse, lose the plant altogether. Years ago, in a garden I was working in, I trimmed a lavender hedge a little too late in September. It looked perfectly neat, but the weather turned cold earlier than expected, and the tender new growth I’d triggered didn’t have time to harden off. A mistake I haven’t made since.
September is a tempting time to tidy – the summer’s slipping away, and the urge to neaten things up takes hold. But many plants, especially those that bloom on old wood like lilacs and forsythia, are best left alone. Prune them now, and you’ll be snipping off spring before it’s even had a chance.
