Hebes

Guernsey Donkey2

I have a lovely shrub white flowered hebe, and have had a few success with cuttings.  Am I too late to prune them.  They finished flowering approx a month ago, and already show signs of new leaf growth. Picture 1 is the established Hebe - nicely bushy but with a few yellow leaves and plenty of new shoots.Picture 2 is one of the cuttings - 18 months old, but quite straggly.  I don't want to cut off the next flowering stems, but feel that this plant should be more compact.  Recommendations please.

Fairygirl

I think that little one badly needed potting on GD. You can still cut it back, but it looks like it needs a bit of new soil/compost to help it along now. 

Is there a reason why you wnat to prune the original one? You can certainly give it a light trim, as long as you feel you won't have any frosty weather to come. It would be too early here to do that. You can always enrich the soil round about it to give it a boost.

Guernsey Donkey2

I have only just found your advice Fairy, and I do think you are right about the cutting - in fact I don't think it has stopped growing all through the "winter" which really hasn't happened here.  I will give it a bigger pot a.s.a.p. I really would prefer it to be more compact so I will prune the plant at the same time and keep it well watered and fed too.  I really would like it to look like the established Hebe in the border, the flowers were lovely and just went on and on for months. I don't want the bigger Hebe to end up looking leggy too.

Borderline

If you want to keep them compact it’s fine to prune both shrubs now or a little bit later. Based on where you are pruning them now will just mean your shrubs flower a little later in the year and I don’t think that’s a bad thing as Hebes pruned this way adds colour later in the year. 

The main thing is to avoid pruning back too hard into thicker stems. If you want your smaller shrub to bush out more you should do that one before it gets tricky to keep a bushy and compact shape.

Guernsey Donkey2

Yes, I intend to prune the smaller one tomorrow Borderline if the weather is calm, however the forecast isn't too good.  I might pass on the more established Hebe though, it is quite compact at the moment, and I don't want to risk missing out on flowers next winter - they were really welcome when most other plants were dormant.

Guernsey Donkey2

I did manage to get outside (despite the wind) to repot all 3 Hebes this morning.  All were pot bound.  I then gave them a prune, I hope they grow back over the next few months and manage to produce their lovely white flowers next winter.  Fingers crossed. Sorry no photo of the new look, I cut them down by about 1 third to half their size.