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How to Trim Heather Bushes
How to Trim Heather Bushes. Heather is a low-maintenance evergreen bush that comes in a variety of colors and heights. Most heather bushes bloom in the winter and continue to maintain their flowers well into the late spring. Without proper trimming, the bush will begin producing new growth above last year's bloom stalk. This leaves the bush looking...
Heather is a low-maintenance evergreen bush that comes in a variety of colors and heights. Most heather bushes bloom in the winter and continue to maintain their flowers well into the late spring. Without proper trimming, the bush will begin producing new growth above last year's bloom stalk. This leaves the bush looking sparse and bare in the middle, and top heavy enough to fall open. Pruning the heather once annually will prevent this.
Things You'll Need
Hedge trimmers or garden shears
Wait until the late spring to begin trimming heather bushes, or whenever the bush loses its flowers and begins producing new growth above the bare flower spike.
Trim the heather back by cutting each flower spike just below the bare portion. For smaller bushes, use gardening shears. For larger heather bushes, use hedge trimmers and cut several spikes at a time.
Remove the cut bare stalks. Put them in a compost pile or dispose of them in the garbage. Repeat the trimming once each year.
Tips & Warnings
Do not cut the flower spikes down to the wood near the soil. That is cutting the heather back too far, and it may not recover in time to produce winter blooms.
