Very old plants
Lilly
Posts: 64
Hi. My Daughter has moved to a new house snd inherited a garden full of very old over grown plants. Not sure what to keep and what to lose. Very old standard roses. Leggy hebes and geraniums amidst plants I don't recognise. Can anyone give me advise where to start please. 
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Posts
I am not an expert by any means but I have inherited many gardens over the years and the best advice I was given was to do nothing drastic for a year just to see what grows throughout the rest of the year. Looking at the pics you have put up, I would prune hard, weed carefully and then wait and see. You might chuck out a lovely plant too soon!
For seems that someone was a keen gardener at some time.
I would prune anything shrubby-looking hard back. Anything else, I would leave .
Next year, if the pruned shrubs come back and you like then, keep them.
Pull out anything that died.
There are probably some lovely perennials and bulbs there and it would be a shame to lose them.
Thankyou so much for your advice. It feels wrong just pulling out plants that someone has lovingly planted. Just one thing can I cut back the long leafy plants that I assume are bulbs ? Sorry for my ignorance I'm learning ?
Don't prune the spriaea snowmound, ( in front of the dog ) that's next years flowering wood, and it's the only half decent looking plant you have there.
If it were me, I'd get IDs on each plant and decide , plant by plant. I'd say many are beyond salvaging efforts. Hebes, for example rarely perform well after hard pruning.
Some will clearly disagree.
Oops - I did not see that one! Thank you Hosta.