The last couple of months of the year are an excellent time to prune. Winter has fully taken hold and deciduous trees and shrubs are dormant and showing their structure clearly. During the colder months these shrubs and trees will store most of their nutrients in their trunk and roots meaning we can safely cut them back and shape them without stressing the plant too much.
To prepare for pruning you should have a clean, sharp secateurs if you are having trouble cleaning or sharpening the one you have. I would strongly advise getting a new one as you will risk injuring and spreading disease to your plants otherwise. The price of secateurs varies widely, anything from 10 euro to 150 euro for a top of the range Felco. To be honest I wouldn't go crazy getting the best as unless you are working 24/7 in your garden or pruning professionally. Something like the Kent & Stowe Traditional Secateurs Twin Pack (24.99) is perfect as it gives you both a hard pruning design for rougher jobs and an all purpose design for everything else.
You should always clean and disinfect your secateurs after each use and spray it down with a little oil. You can sharpen most of them easily with a scissors sharpener and it's easy enough to do provided you don't let it get too blunt.
Trees and Shrubs to prune now.
Fruit Trees -
Most fruit trees will have dropped the last of their crop and can now be pruned back and shaped. Take out any young branches that are crossing over or through others. None of the branches should be leaning on each other as they will rub and injure themselves in the wind.
Japanese Acers (Maples) -
You can prune Acers now but be mindful that they grow incredibly slowly so only take off a little or branches that are diseased or dead. They are very sensitive and if you take off too much they can just keel over.
Beech Hedge -
Now is an excellent time to give your hedge a hard cut back and shape it as you want it.
Roses-
Cut back roses by about a third and remove any diseased or damaged parts. You can also treat them with an antifungal such as Westland Fungus Guard (10.99).
Raspberries (Autumn Fruiting)-
These should be cut down to around 4-6cm to the ground.
Try not to prune if it's frosty outside as this can cause added stress to the plants, equally if it is overly wet as the roots will be more vulnerable.
You should leave spring flowering trees and shrubs alone for the moment unless there are any obvious dead or damaged branches. Forsythia and Hydrangeas are good examples. Hydrangeas are already forming next year's blooms and so pruning them now will harm next year's flower growth. It's best to leave the likes of Hydrangeas until late Winter or early Spring.
Finally when doing any large pruning job always remember to wear the appropriate safety gear, goggles, gloves and a decent pair of boots.
