Pruning climbers

[judi bk]

This isn't neccessarily the right answer but it works for me.  

The problem with climbers here is that if watered they are a bit rampant.  I tend to cut mine back in the Autumn to tidy up and to avoid the wind rocking the plants and loosening the roots - and taking the fence/trellis with it.  Then in the spring I prune back to the main thick stems that give me the shape that I want.  Other people prune almost to the ground - I just can't make myself do that.  

Timing - well the old saying is that growth follows the cut , so plants will try to shoot out leaves if you prune them all away and you really don't want to do that when there is any chance of frost - we had minus 1 last night - so I would leave it until the end of Februay at least.

[Karen4]

I've read that this is the time of year I should be pruning climbers hard. Now, what does "hard" mean? Hit it before using the secateurs?! Cut it to the ground?! I have a big bougainvillea, about 8 feet tall, should I be nearly chopping it down? I have a couple of others, plus a couple of jasmines that I only planted a few months ago and I don't want to scare them, so what do I do?  If anybody's still reading this can you give me an idea of what height I should be left with? And will they really grow back? Getting very timid now!