Honeysuckle is a climbing plant with fragrant, trumpet-shaped flowers and a honey scent. It often grows in hedgerows, woodlands, and gardens, twining around other plants. Many people love honeysuckle for bringing year-round interest; delicate blooms, often pink-tinged, yellow, and cream, emerge in spring and summer, followed by bright-red berries in the autumn.

While the plant is generally very low maintenance, one thing you should not neglect is pruning. Gardening experts at Roots Plants note that a little pruning at the right time each year has many benefits: "Pruning can help your plant flower more, grow in the direction or shape you want it to, and get more of the sun it needs to thrive."

Different types of honeysuckle are pruned at different times of the year, but the climbing kind, which blooms in summer, is most common.

The Roots Plants team explained that unless your honeysuckle has grown out of hand, it will usually only need a light trim to keep it in shape. However, they warned, "Too much pruning will reduce the following year's flowering."

Climbing honeysuckle usually bloom from May to June and sometimes beyond, so they are best pruned after they've finished flowering.

As a general rule, gardening experts suggest cutting the stems back by about a third to keep the shape.

Side shoots should be trimmed down to short spurs of two to three buds which originate from the main stems.

The gardening experts said: "Don't be tempted to deadhead the faded flowers, as these will turn into berries, which add a nice bit of autumn interest and attract birds."

A good, sharp, clean pair of secateurs is all that you need to prune honeysuckle, and a stepladder if your honeysuckle has climbed out of reach.

For late-flowering summer honeysuckles, which flower from June or July into autumn, spring pruning is recommended.

Unlike early-flowering types, these ones flower on the current season's growth, so take time to prune in spring - but don't do it too hard, or you'll lose the flower buds.

According to the Roots Plants team, simply thinning out any crowded, tangled areas and removing dead or damaged stems is enough for this type of honeysuckle.

It's not always recommended to prune honeysuckle every year. In fact, you can leave it be if the plant is relatively young and it's not getting out of control.

However, as the plant grows, pruning becomes more important to help your plant direct its energy into more flowers.

For very vigorous growers, you can trim them annually, but if you're satisfied with your honeysuckle's size and shape, it's perfectly fine to prune every other year.