Northeast Gardening: Visions of Spring '08!, 1 by bbrookrd

bbrookrd wrote:
Mine is 15 to 20 years old (late 80's) and it needs lots of pruning. I will photograph it for you and you can see it needs a major whacking now, but as it grows on the previous season's wood, I can't do any pruning now. But I will do a major thinning soon and take out a major branch and all the suckers. Or should I leave it except the suckers until after it blooms? Dilemma. I always do a little pruning after it blooms in mid June and deadhead the spent blooms and it always seems to bloom again for a long time in the fall. No one seems to mention that attribute in anything I have read, but mine always does. Maybe it is confused by my pruning methods. It will be really wild this spring if I don't thin it out. Here is a close up June 12 th in 07. I will post it's present state soon. Cold outside. Patti