I have a very old berberis darwinii. I spent yesterday reducing its height
again and thinning out the rest so that it is only about nine feet in any
dimension now. That's a wild guess as it is on a slope. Him indoors would
have liked it cut back much further but I dont want to lose it and the
trunks are already bare for the first few feet. How much butchery might it
take? I think they should be cut in summer, 'after flowering' but it flowers
fairly continuously from April onwards and still has a few blooms now.

I also have a lavender bush getting taller each year. I believe you can't
cut them hard back without killing them. If, instead of trimming just the
flower stalks away, I carefully cut each stem back to about four leaves or
so, would that help it stay lower? I don't know the variety, but it is
nothing unusual.

Thanks for any suggestions.
E.

Tahi wrote:
I have a very old berberis darwinii. I spent yesterday reducing its height
again and thinning out the rest so that it is only about nine feet in any
dimension now. That's a wild guess as it is on a slope. Him indoors would
have liked it cut back much further but I dont want to lose it and the
trunks are already bare for the first few feet. How much butchery might it
take?

ISTR that the question was asked on GQT, and the concensus of opinion
was that they're pretty-well impossible to kill.

I cut one right down to the ground - about seven feet high and nine feet
across in all directions (except up, obviously, and I can't comment on
down...)

It kept coming back, even after I'd built a bonfire over it.

I think they should be cut in summer, 'after flowering' but it flowers
fairly continuously from April onwards and still has a few blooms now.

I also have a lavender bush getting taller each year. I believe you can't
cut them hard back without killing them. If, instead of trimming just the
flower stalks away, I carefully cut each stem back to about four leaves or
so, would that help it stay lower? I don't know the variety, but it is
nothing unusual.

I'd take and root cuttings from it before any butchery is undertaken -
lavender is a fickle shrub at the best of times.

--
Rusty

It kept coming back, even after I'd built a bonfire over it.

Thank you Rusty and Janet, that is just what I needed to hear!
E.

In message ,
Janet writes
In article ,
says...

I have a very old berberis darwinii. I spent yesterday reducing its height
again and thinning out the rest so that it is only about nine feet in any
dimension now. That's a wild guess as it is on a slope. Him indoors would
have liked it cut back much further but I dont want to lose it and the
trunks are already bare for the first few feet. How much butchery might it
take?

Any amount. Whatever is left above ground will sprout. My neighbour
had his reduced from 8ft tall and wide to 2 ft stumps, with a chainsaw,
earlier this year. Every stump has put on 2 ft of new growth.

Janet


This made me smile... A couple of years ago I cut two honeysuckle
shrubs down to 6" stumps to allow access for my garage to be re-roofed.

After the job was done, I planted two more alongside the stumps, late in
the year, and tied them in to a trellis on the garage wall.
The following year the new ones were struggling to compete with the
vigorous shoots from the stumps. :-)
--
Gordon H
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In article ,
Gordon H wrote:

This made me smile... A couple of years ago I cut two honeysuckle
shrubs down to 6" stumps to allow access for my garage to be re-roofed.

After the job was done, I planted two more alongside the stumps, late in
the year, and tied them in to a trellis on the garage wall.
The following year the new ones were struggling to compete with the
vigorous shoots from the stumps. :-)

Yes. That happens with almost all natural shrubs. But, be warned
about honeysuckle - that will happen with some of them, but others
will die. My guess is that it is the Eurasian ones that are the
natural shrubs and the American ones the 'trees', but I haven't
tried more than a few.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In message , writes
In article ,
Gordon H wrote:

This made me smile... A couple of years ago I cut two honeysuckle
shrubs down to 6" stumps to allow access for my garage to be re-roofed.

After the job was done, I planted two more alongside the stumps, late in
the year, and tied them in to a trellis on the garage wall.
The following year the new ones were struggling to compete with the
vigorous shoots from the stumps. :-)

Yes. That happens with almost all natural shrubs. But, be warned
about honeysuckle - that will happen with some of them, but others
will die. My guess is that it is the Eurasian ones that are the
natural shrubs and the American ones the 'trees', but I haven't
tried more than a few.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The ones I thought I had killed were 3"-4" dia stumps, I had to use my
electric Sabre saw to get them so short.
--
Gordon H
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