Tuesday 4 September 2012

Autumn buds

I have written quite a lot this year about various rather drastic pruning activities. Such things do have to take place once in a while. The object of the exercise in each case has been to make some bushes more compact and less straggly. When you do a task like this it always looks as if the plant will never recover, but they usually do. Mine have. Phew!

Here is the Philadelphus tree, which now has tiny green shoots appearing in all the right places (mostly at the tops of the sawn-off trunks:




I wonder how a tree / bush decides where it is going to put out a new shoot. They just seem to appear in any old random place!


The Blueberries that I pruned just a couple of weeks ago are covered with tiny tiny pink buds. You have to look closely, but they are definitely there:






The important question to answer now is will the shoots grow big enough before the Winter comes? They have probably a month - at a pinch six weeks - before the first frost, I would say.

9 comments:

  1. Is it good to grow buds in autumn? They are for the next year. If they grow now when do the new buds for next year will grow?

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    1. These buds are not flower buds, they are new stems appearing, so I hope they will be OK.

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    2. Yes, they will be OK, but are there any left for spring in next year?

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  2. I hope they survive. Because we don't have a really cold winter I really don't pay much attention to proper pruning times, I just hack away at anything that looks out of control. Thankfully I haven't killed anything yet. But with your extreme temperatures there must be a right and wrong time to prune, hopefully you got it right.

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  3. It's always a relief to see life after pruning.

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  4. Oh you made me panic for a second there Mark...I thought argh! autumn buds already...but then I remembered I'm here and just entering spring.
    It was kind of a blonde moment there...but in my defence I've have a tough week last week ;D

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  5. Interesting the way plants respond to stress with new growth. Hopefully the new shoots harden off before winter!

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  6. I didn't realise you were supposed to prune blueberries? Although I guess its a good idea as I presume they flower and fruit on their new growth?

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  7. I'm hoping that the sun will still be shining in a month, never mind a frost. It's always a relief to see something spring back to life when it's been pruned.

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