What Should You Prune in Autumn?

Autumn is the busiest pruning month for most gardeners, largely because the garden looks untidy and the urge to clear is strong. Restraint pays: several plants are far better left alone until spring.

Prune in autumn

These can be cut back safely once growth has slowed:

• Rambling roses that have finished flowering, and long shrub rose growth shortened to prevent wind rock
• Deciduous hedges given their final tidy
• Summer-fruiting raspberry canes that have fruited
• Perennials that collapse into a wet mess — hostas, alchemilla, geraniums

Leave until spring

Cutting these back now costs you flower, structure or plant health:

• Ornamental grasses and strong seedheads — echinacea, sedum, phlomis, teasel
• Hydrangeas, whose old flower heads protect next year's buds from frost
• Penstemons and other borderline-hardy perennials
• Evergreen shrubs, which resent late cuts before winter

A note on Warwickshire clay

On heavy local soils, walking borders in wet autumn weather does more damage than an untidy plant ever will. Work from a board where you can, and save the finer clearing for a dry spell.