I have just lost my ceanothus which had grown into a wonderful standard after 24yrs and it was mild winter.

As it's flowering I would not prune untill it's finished blooming them give a good tidy shape up.

Good luck as they are beautiful.

Took me a minute to make head or tail of the photo - its upside down I've realised, lol!
What's that pale wood where the ceanothus is growing from? Is it a trough, is that what its planted in?

Yes it's in a trough which is set on top of soil. It needs to be there as it's a screen for our beehives and the initial ground wasn't brilliant. It's quite a good sized trough so I hope it will suffice?? Sorry the photos are upside down... Just like the rest of my life!! I would be very sorry to lose this plant Scotcat so fingers crossed ill do a decent job of the tidy up!! Many thanks

Tadpole, are you saying its contained inside a trough which has bottom on it, or is it open to the ground beneath? If its not open to the ground, this particular Ceanothus gets pretty big, treelike in fact, and obviously wants to make a root system big enough to support that. Contained in something less than 18 inches to 2 feet deep, it won't grow well at all and you will eventually lose it - unless, as often happens, a couple of major roots grow through into the ground beneath.

Even Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 'repens', a much smaller variety, won't cope in something with only about 8 inches depth for root room. If it hasn't rooted through to the ground, can you move it into a deep pot? If it has rooted through, prune back after flowering is over, as Scotkat suggests.

Thanks for taking the time to answer all this for me Bamboo. The plants is in the trough which has really good soil in it. The trough has been placed on top of ground that we dug and enriched as best we could but it wSnt easy. So we made the trough to plant it in to give it a good start knowing it can then grow into the ground underneath. What do toy think?

Ah, I get it... so long as it can expand its roots, the trough isn't a problem... back to pruning as suggested then;-)