Why prune jasmine, what is the difference between autumn and spring pruning?

When growing ornamental shrubs, a novice gardener may find it difficult to prune jasmine. In autumn or spring, to carry out this work, at what age to start, what shape to give the plant - these and many other questions sometimes do not find an answer. Don't worry, this is an unpretentious plant, caring for it is easy. The first time may turn out to be unsuccessful, the shape of the bush will be uneven, but do not give up. Take into account the mistakes and repeat the procedure after six months. Each time you will gain experience, and after a while you will be able to compete with a professional landscape designer.

Why does jasmine need pruning?

When approaching many summer cottages, you can feel a strong but pleasant aroma. It is emitted by a lush bush covered with white flowers - garden jasmine. An ornamental plant gives charm to a flower garden, looks great in hedges, and it becomes incomprehensible why such a beautiful flower was given a dissonant name - chubushnik. Perhaps this word escaped from a man harvesting wood for pipe shanks, at the sight of wild gnarled bushes with old cracked branches, with a too dense, but uneven crown and stunted inflorescences.

Jasmine is unpretentious, it can grow without any care, but its decorative qualities are reduced. Old trunks do not allow new shoots to develop correctly, frozen and broken branches serve as a haven for pests and a breeding ground for infections. Poorly developed young growth will not be able to produce many buds, flowering will be weak. Uneven branches will not add charm to either a flower garden or a front garden, and strongly overgrown plants planted close to each other will resemble an impenetrable jungle.

If the jasmine is allowed to grow freely, some shoots can overcome a height of 2 m. Long branches sticking out in different directions look sloppy. Such bushes are not suitable for either landscape design or hedges. Old trunks do not bloom, but they take away light and nutrients from young shoots. Instead of lush white hats, rare small flowers will appear on the bushes. Anyone who walks past such thickets will get the impression that the site is abandoned and the owners are not doing it at all.

When is the best time to prune jasmine?

Jasmine easily tolerates pruning, so you can shorten shoots that violate the shape of a bush or hedge throughout the summer season. In the spring, you need to inspect the bush, check what damage the winter cold left.

Until the buds are swollen, spring pruning should be done, which includes:

• cutting down old branches;
• removal of frozen and broken shoots;
• crown formation;
• rejuvenating the bush.

Over the summer, jasmine will grow, some branches will be damaged by diseases and insects. It is impossible to leave the plant in this form for the winter. In the fall, you need to prepare the bush for wintering and spring development. To keep ornamental shrubs always looking neat, they need to be pruned annually in spring and autumn.

After flowering, a number of procedures should be performed:

• remove wilted inflorescences;
• thin out the bush by removing old trunks;
• remove damaged and diseased fragments.

In the fall, you need to not only cut, but also feed the jasmine for the winter. Plan this work in advance, since fertilization can be applied either before pruning or 2 weeks after the procedure. Do not delay removing old branches - work must be done before the temperature drops below -10⁰ C.The wood of the plant is fragile, removing frozen fragments, you can injure young shoots.

The very first pruning should be done immediately after planting, no matter when it happens: in spring or autumn. Immediately think about what shape you want to give the jasmine, determine which shoots are growing in the wrong direction, and remove them. Leave no more than 3 trunks on which the strongest buds are located. Cut off the rest mercilessly - the bush will gain splendor over time, and the newly emerging shoots in the open space will begin to actively develop and will be covered with flowers next year.

How to properly carry out autumn pruning?

Prepare everything you need in advance. In autumn or spring pruning, you will have to remove thin twigs and cut down strong trunks. Young shoots can be damaged if unsuitable tools are used. Sharpen all cutting edges well; dull blades will not give an even cut.

You will need the following inventory:

• hacksaw;
• secateurs;
• lopper;
• garden var or special cut-off putty.

The scheme of work is easy to remember. First, all diseased, dry and damaged fragments are removed, then old shoots and branches that grow incorrectly or thicken the plant. When all unnecessary has been removed, give the plant the desired shape.

Once flowering is over, remove any dried flowers. With this procedure, the wounds remain small, they do not need to be processed. If left on, wilted buds can become a source of infection and give the bush a sloppy look. Freed from dry fragments, jasmine will decorate the site with a green crown until late autumn.

In the fall, cut down all trunks that are five years old. Do not damage the young branches that have grown this year - next season they will give the bulk of the buds. See if there are any crooked, broken, dry or diseased branches, destroy them too. If the bush has uneven lighting, it may look one-sided. Cut off the shoots so that the density becomes even. Remove branches that are too long that extend beyond the border of the crown. Cover all wounds with garden varnish, it will protect the tissues from the penetration of fungi and other infections.

Advice

For beginners, it is important to learn how to give the jasmine a symmetrical shape. During the first years, make sure that the bush is even, and after gaining experience, you will be able to give it the shape of a ball, cube, pyramid and even animal figures.

Autumn pruning - it's time to prepare cuttings for bush propagation. For this purpose, annual shoots are removed along with part of the old trunk. Cut them into 5 cm cuttings, each with 2 internodes and several pairs of leaves. Do not forget that under the internodes you need to cut at an acute angle, and above the kidney - horizontally. Remove the planting material until spring in the basement and store at zero temperature.

We form the crown

Formative pruning of the mock-orange should be carried out throughout the season, including in the fall. To prevent weak shoots from thickening the crown and not taking away light from strong branches, thin branches are shortened by half or completely removed. If the plant does not waste nutrients to develop useless fragments, it will release many new shoots in the spring. In the first season, they will have only dense green foliage, but the next year, lush flower caps will bloom.

If you are using shrubs to create green fences, a good formative jasmine pruning is essential. Curbs along paths, flower screens around benches, mazes of bushes should be even and dense. Remove thin twigs, and shorten the strong shoots slightly - they will give a lot of foliage, and the hedge will be lush. The shoots grow quickly, and after a while, instead of a clear surface, you will see branches sticking out in different directions, giving the plantings an unkempt look.

The top of the green fence does not have to be flat.You can make waves, turrets, ledges - it all depends on the design style of the summer cottage. On the flowerbed, the bush can be shaped like a ball or a cube; on the playground, kids will be pleased with figures of animals or toys.

Advice

For the first time, you can invite a specialist for a decorative haircut, then you will trim the bushes according to his model.

How to rejuvenate old bushes?

When you notice that the foliage is no longer growing so luxuriantly, the branches look naked and unattractive, you need to understand that the bush is old. It is not necessary to uproot jasmine and plant new cuttings; it is in your power to rejuvenate it. Perennial plants have a strong root system, and if they are healthy and working well, young shoots will grow vigorously. You only need to give an incentive for the emergence and development of new branches, and for this, first of all, you should remove the old crown.

Advice

When cutting branches and trunks, it is better to cut at an angle of 45⁰, then the wounds absorb less water, which causes decay and serves as a source of reproduction of harmful microorganisms. After pruning, be sure to treat the wounds with garden pitch.

The best time for rejuvenating pruning is spring, before the buds begin to swell. If you are late with this work, you can do it in the summer, just not during the flowering period. But it is better to transfer it to autumn. Choose 4-5 of the strongest and youngest shoots, cut them at a height of 0.5 m from the ground. Cut the rest of the trunks to the ground. In spring, the bush will release young branches, which will be covered with green leaves. In April or May, when new shoots appear, remove them, leaving no more than 3 branches on each trunk. In a couple of years, a lush young jasmine will bloom under your window.

After pruning garden jasmine, treat all wounds with garden varnish. The plant needs good nutrition to recuperate after surgery. But if you didn't feed the bushes before the procedure, now is not the time to do it. Let the plant grow strong for a couple of weeks, and then feed it with manure or compost. After the spring procedure, the bush needs to quickly gain strength. Feed it every 10 days, water it well, mulch the soil under the crown.

If you have an unsightly unkempt bush on your site, pruning will turn it into a beautiful garden jasmine. In autumn, the gardener has a lot to do: you need to harvest and process the crop, prepare the beds for the new season, and shelter delicate plants from the cold. Take time to feed and prune your ornamental shrub. In spring, green leaves will bloom on it, and in summer, the entire crown will be covered with beautiful fragrant white flowers.