Pruning climbers

Pruning tips

• If you're not sure when a climber or wall shrub is best pruned, a useful guide is to prune spring and early summer-flowering plants when their blooms fade. Those flowering in late summer usually do so on the current year's growth, so encourage this by pruning in late winter.
• When pruning healthy wood, make an angled cut using bypass secateurs. Cut close to a healthy bud, sloping away from it.
• Always wash the cutting blades of secateurs, loppers and saws in diluted garden disinfectant after use, particularly when diseased wood is cut. This is to prevent the spread of diseases from plant to plant.

Pruning tips for common climbers

Honeysuckle

• Wires, trellis or a similar support are necessary to help climbing honeysuckle, Lonicera, to scramble its way to full height.
• If space is limited, prune annually to keep growth within bounds.
• Remove straggly growth after flowering.
• Late summer varieties are best pruned in spring. Lonicera japonica can become top-heavy and benefits from cutting hard back to 1m (3.5ft) high every two to three years.

Virginia creeper

• This plant is inclined to grow upwards rather than sideways and may cover a large area unless restrained.
• Reduce growth annually in winter by cutting out some of the older, overcrowded stems.
• Trim growth back from gutters, windows and downpipes in winter and again in the growing season if necessary.

Clematis

• Pruning regimes for clematis vary according to their flowering season but all thin, weak or damaged shoots should be pruned out to their point of origin or to ground level.
• For more detailed information on pruning clematis, read our step-by-step guide.

Wisteria

• This plant needs summer pruning to restrain growth and also to maintain the short sideshoots on which the flowers develop.
• During early July, about two months after flowering, prune sideshoots and long twining stems down to five or six leaves from a main branch.
• In winter cut back the summer-pruned sideshoots again to leave two or three buds. These will bear flowers the following spring.
• At the same time, cut back any older, congested or excessively long spurs to keep growth close to the supports.

Ivy

• This will cover a wall unassisted, but you can speed up the process by training some long growths along the foot of the wall.
• No pruning is needed in the early stages.
• Once the allotted area is covered, trim shoots every April and sometimes again in summer.
• Cut off the bushy growth at the top of the plants if this makes them top-heavy and keep shoots clear of pipes and gutters.