On Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:41:39 +0100, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 13/07/2012 13:30, Justinthyme77 wrote:

I'm having the house re-pointed and have a couple of firethorns, pruned
to about 3' wide, which I have nurtured so far to about 12' against the
wall and I don't want to lose them. They have fairly straight central
stems and I intend to prune them back as close to the stem as is
reasonable so that I can then release the ties and carefully lay them
back so as to provide access for the brickies. Anyone know how close I
could reasonably go at this time of year without causing irrepairable
damage?

If you mean pyracantha then the brickies are going to love you. I have
had prunings with inch long spines from that penetrate my thick boot
soles. I doubt you could kill it even if chopped off at ground level.

Mine has survived some serious abuse by unsympathetic industrial
gardeners. It grew back again but took a few years to do so.

It is a bit of a nuisance for being extremely sharp spined. Pruning hard
probably means you will lose this winters fruit but that is all. This
years bad weather may affect next years flowering anyway.

I had to hack one back about 9 years ago for a similar reason. It is
now just as big as it was before the chop though, for some reason, has
never flowered/fruited as prolifically as before its lopping. I read
somewhere a couple of years ago that once you start pruning pyracantha
it never again flowers as well though why this should be escapes me.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling from the East End of Swansea Bay where sometimes
it's raining and sometimes it's not.