The winter pruning is nearly done - finishing up with the deliberately late-pruned Madeleine Angevine down by the gate in Frost Corner. 

This shows why late pruning works as a protection against spring frosts. 

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Once the buds break they are totally frost vulnerable . While they are in bud they are, depending on the development, partly resistant. The buds break first at the top of the canopy. These vines in our frost corner we’ve left unpruned till now. The frost risk is, fingers crossed, past, and I am busy spur pruning these canes down to two buds, most of them still safely in bud. They’ll come out quickly after they’ve been cut back.

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It’s been a long, nervous wait, and we did lose a few little shoots last weekend when temperatures hit zero briefly, just slightly up the slope where we hadn’t taken these precautions. Further on up they were fine, but cold air pools in this corner, so that’s why we late prune here.

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Now it’s a race to get them all done and dusted quickly to avoid delaying the growth unduly. 4 of the unpruned half-rows done, 12 to go…