I posted earlier and you all were very helpful with my Crystal Fountain. I've been trying to figure out how to prune, but I'm not feeling secure in what I've read so I keep delaying pruning.

Basically this is its second year in the ground at our house. Planted in late July of 2008. I didn't do any pruning last year. It is very slow growing with few flowers. Last year I had maybe 3 flowers. This year about 5.

I have been told to hard prune in the beginning, but much information says type 2 should only get a light prune. Now I know that I should have hard pruned after the first year to promote root growth, and then light prunings after that. But, I missed the first year. If I didn't hard prune the first year, should I do it now? And, if I should, how much do I "hard prune?" Do I cut it down to a foot? Just trim all the growth down to half? What would a hard prune really look like? I know my Sweet Autumn gets a hard prune almost down to the ground. (I discovered this on my own when I stepped on the woody stem in very late fall last year and it sprouted four grow-crazy vines from the root this spring.) Basically I'm scared to hard prune because it's now two years old. Does that make a difference?

I have also decided that my soil needs rejuvenating. I'm turning the compost pile to get some of that stuff ready, too.

Thank you for your help!