Pruning Solanum glasnevin

shevlin.lily

I have a lovely solanum Glasnevin that is about 3 years old now. Last autumn, I foolishly cut it back hard, as it was pulling on my neighbours fence. That was obviously too harsh and next spring/early summer I thought it had died. However, it suddenly sent up new shoots from the base in mid-late summer. These never flowered, but look healthy. Because its been such a mild winter, these now seem to be growing again and some even have buds on that look almost ready to bloom. I am not sure how best to go about pruning it this spring, as I don't want to cut back too harshly on these new shoots, especially as they seem to have their flowers ready. Having said that, the new growth has been so prolific, I think it does need a tidy up!

Any ideas?!

BobTheGardener

They flower on 2 year old wood so make sure you preserve a decent amount of the new growth which is what will provide next year's flowers.  They have one of the most untidy growth habits of any plant I have grown and stems older than this year's growth are extremely brittle, so almost impossible to train without them snapping.  Possibly the best way of growing them is to keep tieing-in the new growth and removing some of the older growth after flowering.

Hostafan1

Welcome to the Forum. 
They're beats which refuse to be tamed. Good luck