Hedging your bets (or betting your hedges)

Cordons should be pruned every year around mid August (i.e. about now). Your cordon is ready for pruning when the new side shoots from the main stem(s) become woody at their base. Shorten all of this new growth from the main stem to 3 or 4 leaves above the basal cluster of leaves at the base of the shoot - see the diagram below.
Where a shoot from the main stem has a side shoot coming of it, prune this also - to one leaf above the cluster of leaves its base.

I will be adding to this over the next week or so.

Yew Hedging

If you are planning on planting a yew hedge this autumn, now is the time to start preparing the ground. Mark out the area you are going to plant - bareroot yew hedge plants are always planted in a single row in a trench about 60 cms wide - so that is what you are going to weedkill.

There are a number of (relatively) early flowering trees and shrubs that prefer to be pruned immediately ofter planting as it gives them more time to produce new wood on which they will flower next year.  The list includes Deutzia, Kolkwitzia and Philadelphus.

Trim/clip back Privet, Pyracantha and the hedging Viburnums (such as V. tinus Eve Price).

Please don’t forget to water the trees and hedges you planted over the winter and into the spring - it really makes a difference.