Pruning in August means gardeners can reap the rewards of better displays both this year and the following.

It helps to keep the garden looking attractive as giving plants a cut helps to maintain their attractive shape.

Certain plants also benefit from it because it allows more air and light into the plant, helping it grow.

It is crucial to prune different plants at different times of the year to avoid damage and plant death.

With this in mind, here’s what gardeners can prune throughout the month of August.

Lavender

Left to grow on their own, lavender can become an unsightly tangled mess, so it’s important to keep it trimmed.

Tim Marshall, head gardener at Raby Castle, said: “Trim back any dead or damaged branches to the base of the plant. Try to avoid pruning back into the old wood which has no foliage.

“Consider the desired shape of your lavender plant, usually a rounded or mounded form.

“Trim the outer branches to maintain this shape, cutting just above a leaf node or lateral branch junction.”

If gardeners forget to prune their lavender after summer has finished, then it’s best to wait until the following spring, especially for less hardy varieties including French, Spanish and Italian.

Wisteria

Wisteria needs regular pruning to keep its vigorous growth and overall size under control, but it can also help its “flowering display”.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), wisteria is bet pruned twice a year, in August and in January.

Whilst it may seem complicated, pruning wisteria is really simple. After flowering, cut back the whippy green shoots of the current year’s growth to five or six leaves.

In the winter, cut back the shoots you pruned in summer to two or three buds, to tidy up the plant before the growing season starts.

Rambling roses

Similar to wisteria, if left, rambling roses can become a tangled mess of branches with very few flowers.

The RHS said: “When supports have been covered, thin and shorten excessive growth by removing one in three of the oldest stems entirely.

“If space is restricted, prune out all stems that have flowered and tie new ones in to take their place.

“Finish my shortening side shoots by about two-thirds.” Roses which aren’t pruned correctly may suffer from a lack of flowers, known as rose blindness.