Pruning evergreen Euphorbia

Once the blooms on your evergreen Euphorbias have lost their fabulous lime green colouring get out there and give them a prune. Probably a job for the secateurs rather than the scissors, and make sure you wear gloves and cover your arms as the milky sap they release can irritate the skin.

Cut down the flower spikes as low down as you can go.

If you have lots of wild, wiry old growth – and you don’t like the look of this – you can also cut down non-flowering stems hard too. If your plant has nothing but old growth it is a good idea to leave a few old stems with leaves as an insurance policy. Your pruning should stimulate fresh, young growth from the base: once this happens you can cut off the last of the old stems.

In these pictures all the non-flowering growth has been left uncut.