Faced with relatives Pyracantha that have not been kept trimmed into a hedge
more like tall trees with bare stems to about 4 ft
Any advice on how i can get the bare stems to resprout side shoots to once
again create a decent hedge

In article ,
bnd777 wrote:
Faced with relatives Pyracantha that have not been kept trimmed into a hedge
more like tall trees with bare stems to about 4 ft
Any advice on how i can get the bare stems to resprout side shoots to once
again create a decent hedge

Cut it back even harder. Seriously. Pyracantha will shoot fairly
well from old wood, as well as from the roots. But it will take a
year or so. If the plants are fairly healthy, they will produce
shoots several feet long in a season - the one I have just removed
(not grown as a hedge) achieved 5-6' in most years!

If you have single 4' stems, I would tend to cut it all down to 1',
and start from that level. I would then cut it back to 2' in early
summer, to encourage it to bush out. And then to 3' next spring,
and so on.

This is a bit theoretical, as I have never done that with pyracantha,
but I am fairly sure that it is the right approach. It is a very
close relative of hawthorn and should be treated similarly.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in
:

In article ,
bnd777 wrote:
Faced with relatives Pyracantha that have not been kept trimmed into a
hedge more like tall trees with bare stems to about 4 ft
Any advice on how i can get the bare stems to resprout side shoots to
once again create a decent hedge

If you have single 4' stems, I would tend to cut it all down to 1',
and start from that level. I would then cut it back to 2' in early
summer, to encourage it to bush out. And then to 3' next spring,
and so on.

This is a bit theoretical, as I have never done that with pyracantha,
but I am fairly sure that it is the right approach. It is a very
close relative of hawthorn and should be treated similarly.

But I'm sure it is much tougher! Hawthorn seems to quite slow-growing and
delicate by comparison, and the wood is less flexible and more prone to
snapping at the base (rather than snapping back into your face and taking
an eye out, which seems to be what pyracantha longs to do...)

I chopped mine right back with a pruning saw, then watered it when I
remembered. It bounced back: I'm fairly sure it would have done the same
if I'd used napalm!

Victoria