BLACKCURRANTS and other plants, such as hydrangeas, can be treated with almost savage brutality
I must confess I love my secateurs and branch cutters.
The secateurs have a permanent place in my back pocket, ready to be whipped out in a flash and put to work whenever I stroll around the garden.
At the moment our blackcurrant bushes have finished producing a huge crop.
So have the redcurrants, which had to be heavily netted because hungry birds were circling in anticipation.
February is a perfect pruning time for most berryfruit.
If they are not regularly pruned, best of all after harvesting, they become full of diseased wood, insect pests and blackcurrants in particular infested with borers.
Pruning blackcurrants is the easiest job in the garden.
They can be treated with almost savage brutality and the bushes seem to thrive afterwards.
Just cut every old, black-looking branch to just above soil level.
Even secateurs can do the job provided they are sharp, because borer-infested branches are weak and surprisingly soft.
My method is to get the sharp blade just starting to penetrate and while still squeezing, pull the branch in the same direction.
This allows the blade to quickly slide through even fairly thick branches.
The really old, half-dead blackcurrant branches can be too hard for secateurs, so two-handled branch-cutters or loppers are needed.
When all old branches are completely removed, all that should remain are the youngest, healthiest branches.
Right at the base the bright green buds of the next lot of new branches will be clearly visible and this heavy pruning stimulates them into rapid growth.
A deep soaking is enough for lots of vigorous green shoots to form before winter.
These new branches will carry most of the fruit next December and January.
Redcurrant plants are pruned differently because, unlike blackcurrants, they bear fruit on spurs formed on two-year-old wood.
Hard pruning means few berries next season, so go easy.
It is enough to cut out the oldest, diseased branches, then lightly prune back young branches by about a quarter.
Most old-fashioned and shrub roses flower only once in December and January.
Most have now finished blooming and will not do so again until next summer.
Those that produce attractive, bright-red seed pods or hips can be left unpruned until mid-winter.
It is enough to cut out only the dead wood at this stage.
Other badly congested old roses with drab-looking hips, or none at all, can be given the rough treatment and virtually cut to the ground.
After a good, deep watering, they respond with remarkable vigour and produce masses of powerful shoots almost from ground level.
Modern roses can also be pruned, but healthy branches are reduced only by about one-third.
Any young, vigorous water-shoots are best left untouched, apart from a light tip-pruning to remove spent blooms.
Water shoots never recover from being cut back too hard because the growth buds are too immature.
Many climbing roses flower once only. Never hard prune those long, whippy branches that reach towards the clouds.
They may appear messy, but it is these branches that will carry most of the blooms next spring and summer.
If these long branches are slowly and carefully brought down and secured to the supporting trellis or pergola they tend to stop growing and are more easily controlled. If they seem likely to break as they are pulled down, do the job a bit at a time over a few weeks or lace them to each other to form fans.
Many hydrangeas have flowered early or have flower-heads that have become badly sun-bleached, shrivelled and untidy.
These plants can be given another chance by cutting off all dead heads to just above a pair of fat buds.
A good watering and a feed of diluted fish emulsion every 10 days can induce them to flower again in mid autumn.
