Dealing with overgrown plants
Find out how to prune overgrown trees, shrubs and hedges, in our guide.
Pruning regularly is the best way to keep your shrubs and trees in good shape and produce the best display.
However, if a plant has become very overgrown, more drastic action is needed – you'll need to remove some of the stems and reduce the rest by a third or a half.
Here's how to rejuvenate an overgrown shrub, a large hedge and a neglected apple tree.
Rejuvenate an overgrown shrub
Cut out the thickest, oldest stems from the base, using a pruning saw or loppers. To prevent tearing a heavy branch, make a first cut, about 30cm above the final desired cut. Remove the oldest wood – up to a third of the stems – each winter, leaving the rest to flower, and cut back any crossing branches. Then reducing the remaining wood by half after flowering. Don't worry if you can't see any buds – hard pruning stimulates new shoots from under the bark. This works well on forsythia, mahonia and viburnum.
Reduce a large hedge
Many popular hedging plants can be given a very hard rejuvenation prune and respond well. Beech, privet, hornbeam, mixed native hedges and yew can all be cut back very hard to near the main trunk. Only tackle one side at a time, ideally with a one- or two-year break between prunings, then feed and water the hedge well afterwards. Coniferous hedging plants are a different story – this method works on only two of them, yew and thuja. Lawson cypress and leylandii hedges won't take hard pruning.
Sort out a neglected apple tree
Apple and pear trees produce fewer fruits with age. Borne high in the canopy, they are hard to pick and often end up as bruised windfalls. If you enjoy the character of a gnarly old apple tree, then leave it be. Otherwise, take a third of the oldest central branches to open up the heart of the tree and reduce congestion. Then shorten the lower branches by up to half and cut back half of the old, weak fruiting spurs. Remove any crossing branches to reduce congestion.
Hard pruning
Some plants, including Viburnus tinus and Cornus alba, can be pruned hard, right down to the ground. Hard pruning encourages them to send up vigorous new shoots in spring. It's best to hard prune tender shrubs and evergreens, such as mahonia, in spring, after the last frost.
Frequently asked questions
Help! My garden is seriously overgrown with nettles and brambles!
Don't panic! Take one step at a time. Make a plan and tackle one area or problem first, before moving on to the next one. If there's any rubbish, remove this first. Then you may find it helps to divide the garden into sections, that you can work on separately. Always check for wildlife before clearing an area – hedgehogs sleep, nest and hibernate in thickets of bramble and tend to freeze rather than escape when their nest is being disturbed. Once the site is clear, use a strimmer or shears to cut back long grass and nettles, and use a spade to dig out brambles – wear gloves when handling brambles as they have spines. If you have large overgrown shrubs you can cut these back using loppers – see the above tips for how to do this.
Christmas offer
Gift a subscription to BBC Gardeners' World magazine and save 51% on the shop price.
Year Planner 2025 on sale
Starting to plan your gardening year? The Year Planner 2025 is packed with expert advice from the Gardeners’ World team, to ensure you have your best gardening year yet.
New podcast series
Join Monty and the team for advice on winter gardening, tulips, caring for birds, house plants and more in the new BBC Gardeners' World Magazine podcast series.
