Prunus kojo no mai

autumnglory

I've just been reading up on the pruning of prunus kojo no mai and I've read conflicting information.

Some sites say to prune straight after flowering and others say to prune in July or August to reduce stress. If I prune it that late in the year won't I lose flowers in spring?

My aim is to prune to keep it as a bushy shrub instead of growing into a tree shape.

fidgetbones

What shape is it now? If it is a single stem, you need to take out the growing point to make it branch. Mine has several branches from low down, and it is very slow growing.  ( 3 inches last year)

autumnglory

No it is a bush at the moment but I want to keep the foliage low, it's starting to get further away from the ground. I want to keep it around 1.5 metres.

I only want to prune it lightly but I don't want to lose next year's blossom!

Borderline

Autumnglory, the shrub is best shaped in their early years, so not sure how old is your shrub. There will be some loss of blossom if you have to cut further down the branches. And it sounds like you might have to. Light prune at the tips after flowering is unlikely to affect next year's flowers if you do it after flowering and no later, but it's all about balance, getting the shape right and making sure the shrub is balanced.

You can part prune this year and leave the rest the following year as another option.

autumnglory

It is only young, planted in 2015 and it was a tiny plant when I bought it. It's actually grown a lot in 3 years! I've only done light pruning so far to even it out and I took out a strong leader that was distorting the shape. 

It's the balance I have trouble with, I hate seeing things badly pruned. I want to keep on top of it so that it doesn't get so big that I have to drastically prune it in a few years time.