Cotinus- an irritating plant

Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'- the purple leaved smoke bush is a stunning foliage shrub with rich coppery purple foliage and masses of curious small flowers in summer that appear as a haze of smoke. Like many foliage plants, the colour of the leaves is best on young growths and that may necessitate hard pruning. This pruning is best carried out in spring as soon as growth commences.

So why is the plant irritating?   The problem is that the plant is related to the notorious poison ivy of North America. If sap exposed by pruning cuts comes into contact with your skin, you may suffer nasty and long-lasting irritation. There is no need to panic, just ensure that you wear long sleeves and protective gloves when pruning this plant and avoid carrying out this operation on a sunny day as the sap can cause hypersensitivity to sunlight. 

I also find that the sap can coat pruning tools such as saws so clean them carefully after use. 

Large pruning cuts of Cotinus should be treated with care to avoid possible irritation. 

THE ARS long reach pruner

I love using quality tools and avoid using ladders at all costs when pruning. This is particularly true if the ground is uneven or soft, as it often is in rain soaked Wales. When I needed to reduce the height of this over vigorous specimen of Cotoneaster salicifolius growing on a steep bank, I reached for my ARS long reach pruner and did the job from the safety of a level terrace. 

The tool was not cheap, it cost me nearly £100 but I never regret investing in quality. I have a Bahco long reach pruner that cost about the same amount but it is less convenient to use as the cutting mechanism is operated by a pull cord that annoying wraps itself around  the shaft of the tool and needs frequent untangling. 

The ARS pruner is like a giant pair of secateurs in which the handles are separated from the blades by a long, lightweight shaft. The tool cuts cleanly and I keep the blades sharpened (please see my earlier posts about sharpening). It is worth remembering that this is a modified pair of secateurs and so should never be allowed to cut thick stems. The Bahco pruners can cope with a little more abuse and if they cannot cope, I use my trusty Silky Fox Zubat pole saw. 

My ARS pruner is an invaluable part of my pruning toolkit. 

Putting gooseberry prunings to good use

I recently bought and planted some gooseberry bushes and cut back the main stems to promote bushiness, Rather than wasting the prunings, I inserted them into a pot of growing compost and left them to root. A month or so later, all have rooted with no requirement for rooting compound or special care and attention. The pot was left outside and watered by our generous rainfall. Blackcurrants, red and whitecurrants can be easily propagated from leafless previous season's growth taken from prunings.  In the case of blackcurrants which are very easy to propagate, make sure that healthy growth is selected without any signs of abnormally big buds indicating  gall mite damage. 

I obtained 100% success with these cuttings and all have started to grow strongly and will give me plants for my gooseberry hedge in the autumn. This is a good return on an investment of a few minutes of my time and a small quantity of potting compost. 

Hardwood cuttings of gooseberry made from prunings

Some great ideas for fruit trees

I am lucky that I have the opportunity to visit some of the Royal Horticultural Society gardens as part of my work. A visit last month gave me the opportunity to see some clever training of apple trees as double cordons creating a brilliant effect as well as abundant fruit.

Cordons need careful summer pruning to restrict vigour but allow easily access to fruit and are attractive in their own right, They also allow several varieties to grow in one small space meaning you can have a reasonable quantity of fruit from several varieties rather than a mass of fruit all at one time from a single variety.

Straight or slanted cuts for roses?

I was recently examining Royal Horticultural students for their Wisley Diploma and was discussing the rose pruning practical with my good friend and expert horticulturist, Mr Ray Broughton. 

We were discussing the assessment criteria and Ray informed me that it is RHS policy to use straight (horizontal) cuts when pruning roses rather than slanting ones. Until recently, we were advised to make slanted cuts at an angle of 45 degrees to the main stem to prevent water settling on the pruning cut and encouraging fungal infection. Now I have never agonised over the angle of cut as rose stems are seldom vertical and as long as the cut is made cleanly just above a bud with a sharp pair of quality secateurs, you will be fine. 

My point is that you will never find consensus amongst horticulturists about rose pruning, there are still some who advocate the use of hedge trimmers ( I do not) and  have their own techniques at variance with others. If your rose pruning technique works, stick to it.

There are so many ways to prune roses

Make tidy cuts

I am always on the lookout for good and bad pruning and came across this poor specimen of Elaeagnus x ebbingei. The untidy pruning cuts looked a mess and worse still, they will take a long time to heal and this will greatly increase the risk of bacterial and fungal infection. This is a mistake that could prove fatal for the plant. I am sure that a badly sharpened hedgetrimmer was used to butcher this plant. 

If you must use a hedgetrimmer on your shrubs, please tidy up the pruning cuts with a sharp pair of secateurs, treat your plants with respect and they will reward your efforts.

  

Pruning rambling roses

Rose pruning can be a little daunting with so many different types. Rambling roses are vigorous plants that are used for scrambling into trees or covering pergolas or garden structures. The curved thorns act as grappling irons to gain purchase on bark or woodwork. A relatively plain shed or garden building can be transformed by a covering of a rambling rose. 

Rambling roses need to be distinguished from climbers as they have different pruning requirements. Ramblers tend to be very vigorous, have semi-evergreen foliage and flower in a single flush. By contrast, climbers have stiff stems and are usually repeat flowering. There are exceptions to these rules, some ramblers are repeat flowering and some climbers have only a single flush of flowers.

Left unpruned, ramblers often become a mess of tangled shoots and as vigour declines, so does flowering. You need to be prepare to make some some hard pruning cuts to keep your ramblers from becoming triffids and I suggest using both secateurs and loppers. 

Pruning ramblers is about removing flowering shoots close to their point of origin at the base of the plant immediately after flowering. Do not overwork your precious secateurs, a pair of loppers will save time and avoid twisting the blades of your secateurs. What proportion of flowering shoots you remove depends on your requirements, if the plant is threatening to outgrow its allotted space, take them all out leaving the new shoots to flower next year. If there is enough space to accommodate them, leave the majority of flowering shoots in place and take out either a quarter or third of them each year taking out the older shoots on a rota basis. Side shoots are reduced by about a half. 

Pruning ramblers appears brutal and is not a task to be undertaken by a gardener who is timid with the secateurs. 

Rosa mulliganii - a typical rambling rose needing pruning after flowering to keep in check.