Pruning Winter Jasmine
bookmonster
Posts: 399
in Plants
We removed a big overgrown shrub to 
reveal this winter jasmine that has been grwing through it, which we'd like to keep. Any tips on pruning it to a more sensible shape? It's very spindly at the moment.
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By coincidence this was posted to my social media site:
https://www.facebook.com/ngsgardens/photos/a.411572369835.188336.271557644835/10155187477074836/?type=3&theater
Sorry, but that is not winter Jasmine, it is Forsythia! Though the flowers of jasmine are a bit similar, they are a more lemony yellow and the leaves are narrower. The jasmine has a very lax habit and would never grow upright like that.
Forsythia flowers on bare stems with the leaves appearing as the flowers start to fade and it needs pruning as soon as possible after flowering, as next year's flowers will form on this year's growth. I would cut it back quite hard, to promote some decent growth from the base for a framework, then next year you can cut a bit higher to encourage more bushiness and therefore more flowers.
turned out to be both a forsythia and a winter jasmine. The forsythia is gone, we've got an obelisk for the winter jasmine.