A while back Sonya asked my advice on pruning her Wild Dagga. “Hack it down close to the base,” I told her and I have now taken a couple of pics to illustrate what I meant.
I must stress that this isn’t professional advice and there may be a better way of pruning but it works for me. Every year the Wild Dagga grows back fuller and bushier.
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?
yeah, very satisfying. I obviously have a history of hacking 😉
there are some great photographs from that day.
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?
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 ..
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
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.