Comments on: Pruning tips and tricks

By: Sonya

Sonya — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:36:54 +0000

I hears ya Dagmar, I have a bonsai collection out back that is slowly growing into all manner of fancy permutation because I feel somewhat remorseful in hacking them and shaping them to my will. Strangely, I didn’t experience when taking Niall’s advice and thoroughly enjoyed ‘hacking’ the wild dagga. Now, I am enjoying watching the new straight strong shoots growing with each week.

By: Dagmar

Dagmar — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:39:44 +0000

i am bad at this – just feels like you are killing the plant. i did read once that it’s not necessary to prune roses in the first few years

By: Niall McNulty

Niall McNulty — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:18:41 +0000

cool, glad I got the terminology right

I once tried to burn a tree stump in my garden and someone called the cops on me so I think I better stick to hacking ..

By: Ross

Ross — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:37:30 +0000

Hey Niall, I think “hack down close to base” is the technically correct term for a lot of pruning advice…or at least its one I use quite often…

Out in the wild it would be burnt back, but I’m sure your neighbours would object to you setting fire to your garden in winter?

By: Niall McNulty

Niall McNulty — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:20:28 +0000

yeah, very satisfying. I obviously have a history of hacking

there are some great photographs from that day.

By: emme

emme — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:05:29 +0000

brutal! smile, remember when we lived in hammersmith and there were those climbing roses out the back which we hacked without remorse; it was so satisfying. that was a great bush though, it flowered so prolifically! mouldy, you were there too, remember?