Photo: Agnieszka Kwiecień, Nova, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Pruning guide · Shrub
Bluebeard: when and how to prune
Caryopteris × clandonensis
Prune a bluebeard in April, once the worst frosts are over and you can see the new buds swelling: cut all stems back to 15–20 cm above the ground, just above a few healthy buds.
Bluebeard (Caryopteris) is a small shrub of 60–100 cm with grey-green, aromatic leaves and bright blue flowers from August into October, a magnet for bees and butterflies. It flowers on new wood, on this year’s shoots. Without pruning every year it becomes woody and bare at the bottom, and only flowers at the tips. A good prune in spring keeps it compact and full of flowers.
| Pruning months | April |
|---|---|
| Nesting season (15 March–15 August) | Take care in April |
| Flowering | August–October |
| Good for bees, butterflies and birds | Yes, for bees and butterflies |
| Native to Belgium | No, planted |
Bluebeard: when to prune it?
Prune in April, once the worst frosts are over and you can see the new buds swelling.
Don’t prune in autumn: the old stems protect the base in winter, and give insects shelter.
March is usually still too early too: a late frost can damage the freshly pruned plant.
What else to prune in those months? April
Bluebeard: how to prune it?
- Cut all stems back to 15–20 cm above the ground, just above a few healthy buds.
- Remove dead, frosted and very thin twigs completely.
- Don’t cut into the oldest, bare wood without buds: it sprouts poorly from there.
- Rather replace an old, woody plant that hardly sprouts any more with a young one: cuttings are easy to take.
- ‘Worcester Gold’ and other varieties with golden leaves are pruned in the same way.
How much to cut, and how often?
- Every year all the stems, back to 15–20 cm above the ground.
- Nothing more: it needs neither fertiliser nor a second pruning.
What does it mean for wildlife?
- April falls in the nesting season (from 15 March). Hardly anything nests in a low bluebeard, but take a look before you cut.
- From August to October, when little else is flowering, honeybees, bumblebees, wild bees and butterflies flock to the blue flowers.
- Leave the flowered stems all winter: small insects overwinter in them, and they protect the base from frost.
- Plant it with other late-summer flowers such as lavender, ceanothus or wild marjoram: that way your garden feeds bees until well into autumn.
Common mistakes
- Not pruning, so it becomes woody and bare and only flowers at the tips.
- Pruning in autumn, so the base goes into winter unprotected.
- Pruning too early, so a late frost damages the plant.
- Cutting into the old, bare wood, so it doesn’t sprout again.
Caution: It flowers on new wood. Without an annual prune it becomes woody and bare at the base, and only flowers at the tips.