Best time to prune a hawthorn hedge

Hi Team

I need to prune my hawthorn hedge , the birds have already eat the berries.. with this warm weather it still has 50% leaves still on .. soooo can I do now or leave till the leaves drop off

Spruce

 

About 3.30pm on a Thursday.
Sorry haven't a clue, do it now and you will lose flowers, do it after flowering and you lose berries.

I'd do it now, l don't think you need to wait for the leaves to drop

 

I think it's traditionally a winter task, when done to maintain a barrier for livestock. But increasingly, farmers are adopting a new regime, cut one side close one year, and the other side the following year, so that there's always some older growth for flowers and berries for the wildlife.

I guess it depends what you want though. If it's just a neat suburban hedge then I guess you have to lose the flowers and berries.

 

Aim for the week prior to Christmas, for that will give you two days on which to extract thorns.

 

a good sensible reply lol