On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 16:52:22 -0400, Henry
wrote:

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.

Glad to hear that. I was beginning to worry a little that my plant was
rebelling.

Yes, now's the time for the thing to go nuts.

And next year, we won't even notice any sign of defoliation, as new
growth will spring from those canes, if past experience is any
judge...

How big is yours at the moment? And how old?