(http://i201.photobucket.com/albums/aa42/ElleEss_photos/photo1.jpg)
My son has this plant/bush/shrub in his garden and we have no idea what it is. It's his first garden and he wants to know if he needs to cut back the old leaves etc.
Many thanks if you can help identify this.
Viburnam opulus (guelder rose) I think. I'm not great on pruning - I just cut everything down to the ground.
A HUGEEEEEEE thank you. I knew somebody would know :sunny:
About the pruning...question is does it need to be pruned? If your son is happy as it is(have room for it) he only need to take out any wood that is dead or diseased. If he cuts the bush for sake of pruning he will cut off all the flowers and berries that not only look nice in the autumn but bird will enjoy eating them too.
If he thinks the shrub could do bit of 'tidying' up...taking out all the really low hanging branches and one or two from the middle (cutting right down) will give other branches room show of their 'produce' and giving room for new growth .
I would suggest to take out one of two branches every year...that way the bush will keep its vigour and it doesn't look 'hacked down'.
Let it flower and do any necessary pruning afterwards. If he wants to control its growth, summer pruning works well for that.