Advice from Weston garden centre on pruning buddleias

Here's some gardening advice from Mark Cox of Baytree Nurseries of Weston in his weekly Out in the Garden column.

It is fair to say that I was somewhat shocked last week when the present Mrs Cox did not recognise me in a line up parade.

Okay, I accept the fact that I looked more like a scarecrow than her loving husband of over 10 years. However, that thought doesn’t soften the blow.

With my identity still in question, my incarceration at Her Majesty’s pleasure has been extended.

My three new friends Billy, X-Man and T-Dog have all told me that I am the victim of a travesty of justice and they will help me clear my name, as they too have been wrongly convicted on 12 counts of theft, four counts of anti-social behaviour and an incident involving a melon which Billy refuses to talk about.

My new court-appointed solicitor Darren keeps emphasising that times have changed somewhat and today’s courts are now taking a very dim view on those caught stealing peanuts from bird tables. He’s worried they want to make an example of me, which in turn would send a strong message to those who might be contemplating a life of peanut theft.

To take my mind off the court case of the century I’ve been throwing my energies into working in Mr McKay’s garden. Impressed with my pruning of his prized apple tree last week, I have been entrusted to prune his wife’s much-loved Buddleia .When I’m done Mrs McKay will have a beautiful plant covered in colourful butterflies come the summer.

As many of you know, Buddleia if left unchecked will become a twisted tangle of tall stems around two to three metres in height with the flowers at the very top. With the days, believe it or not, getting warmer and the daylight hours increasing, pruning now makes a lot of sense.

To begin with I trimmed the top growth of the bush to around half its height. This first trim allows you to see into the plant better and makes the remainder of the pruning more manageable.

I used a a pruning saw. You can use a pair of loppers...I would have but several months ago an inmate managed to remove another prisoner’s intimate appendage. Affectionately they now refer to him as Adolf. Anyhow, with the saw I removed all of the woody growth which was over the height of 30cm – 12 inches. I was careful to prune just above a bud.

Any dead wood that I came across I removed with the saw. When I looked down at the Buddleia it had been reduced to five or six healthy stubs. You might feel that the scalping I’ve given the plant is excessive but opening up of the plant like this will stand it in really good stead for the growing season ahead.

Pleased with how it was looking I gently forked around the base of the Buddleia just to make sure that the soil had not become compacted as I’d worked around the plant. I asked Mr McKay for some mulch which I applied to the surface of the soil around the plant, this was done to help retain moisture.

Later that evening when back in my cell I began formulating my social media campaign to raise the profile of my case. Unselfishly I am also campaigning on behalf Billy, X-Man and T-Dog.

#FREE THE GARDENING FOUR