Pruning a Broom
Can you prune them quite hard? I have one that was in my garden when I moved in (There were three to start with but I gave two away) and it is starting to spill over border too much. If I would chop off the branch that is in the way, am I likey to harm the plant or will it resprout from the cut off point. My memory tells me they don't like being transplanted and dont take well to pruning. The flowers are red orange if that is of any help.
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You can prune broom straight after flowering, but only cut back the flowered stems by half. You're right, they don't like hard pruning.
I really need to cut off one of the main stems as it is hanging way outside the border. Would it take that or could that stress it to death?
Provided that you have at least three or four left, it should be OK.
I'd leave it until after flowering, although I'm not sure how much difference it makes. No need to do anything special with the cut, just leave it as it is.
They don't regrow if you cut back into old wood, so you're limited in what you can do. We used to have a lovely deep pinkish-red flowered broom but it got leggy and lopsided, and eventually died. What I wish I had done (and you might want to do this) is try to take summer cuttings from new shoots, so that if the old plant is not viable you'll have a young replacement.
That is quite a good idea. Thanks for that.
Cuttings from Brooms are dead easy. The professional I used to work for, used to roll them up in clear tpae, 20 at a time and put them in his propagating bench and they all rooted within a very short time.
I pruned my deep red flowering broom too hard after flowering, took six inches of growth off. The shrub was too bushy and lop sided, still lop sided but not flowering, 2nd year? Will it recover and flower or is it finished?