I wrote:
dave weil wrote:
However, when I say it defoliates after blooming, I don't mean the
entire plant. I just mean that some of the more spindly growth drops
leaves. Right now, my bush is growing like gangbusters. If it follows
the trend of its 3 year lifespan, it will easily be 25 feet by 9 feet
by the end of the season. I actually trim the right side of the bush
to give me a path next to my fence garden. If I had known how wide it
was going to grow, I'd have planted it at least two feet to the left.

I never really noticed it but it's at the bottom of the yard and I'm not
down there all that much. I'll go out tomorrow and see what it looks like.

I guess because of where mine are in the yard I never noticed this
before but yes, I went down and checked today and sure enough, the lower
half of the shrub was mostly leafless. It is putting out some *very*
long canes and it looks quite healthy otherwise.

--
Henry