crom wrote in news:k5v060l3po2kj8u5geo3vvcjv8qpv0bp02@
4ax.com:

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

Some hebes are very intolerant of cutting back to woody growth, even if you
leave some leafy bits at the bottom. I killed a big one this way. :-(
Still, it was very leggy, and now I can see the lilies.

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.

Yes this you can chop right back to a bare framework, it will be all the
better for it, and will be much less prone to greenfly and flower better if
well pruned from time to time.

Note though that honeysuckle is one of those things that climbs up to the
light then spreads out, so if the bottom is shady, it may always have a
tendency to go leaping up towards the light.

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

"crom" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

Can anyone offer me some advice about these two plants. We moved into
an old house where the garden has been left to go a little wild(!) We
didn't do much to the plant life last year (waiting to see what would
appear etc) but now have some firm plans.

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.

Can't help on the Hebe but AFAIK you can hack honesuckle around pretty
brutally and it will grow back.

ISTR we got ours as a chopped hunk of stem and root from someone else and it
grew out just fine.

If in doubt, chop back 50% of the stems this year and see if they grow back.

If not, you can just guide new growth back down to cover the bare bits near
the base - honeysuckle wanders all over the place.

HTH
Dave R

In article ,
crom wrote:

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

You can try, but it may well not work. Many (all?) hebes are New
Zealand plants and are not adapted to browsing, so don't like that
treatment. But, if it would be unsightly if left as it is, you don't
have much to lose.

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.

It depends on the honeysuckle. Some can be cut back to ground level,
and others do not shoot well from very old wood. If there are lots
of separate stems rising from the ground, then it is almost certainly
one of the former, but it might be a bit of a shock to remove them
all. But, generally, honeysuckles can be pruned very hard, so it
is worth being fairly tough on it.

If it responds to being cut back and having old or dead stems cut
out by shooting from the base, you can then remove the other old
stems in successive years. I has some completely tangled
L. japonica, so I have sheared them off at ground level. They
clearly didn't like that but are reshooting.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks very much for the incredibly swift response. I will definitely
be a regular visitor now that we're trying to tackle 'the wilderness'
out the back!

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 18:10:36 +0000, crom wrote:

Hello all,

Can anyone offer me some advice about these two plants. We moved into
an old house where the garden has been left to go a little wild(!) We
didn't do much to the plant life last year (waiting to see what would
appear etc) but now have some firm plans.

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.



The Hebe is 50:50, sometimes it kills them, sometimes not. Cutting
hard if you see signs of new growth below is sometimes possible. The
good news - cuttings are about as easy as cuttings get, so put some
cuttings in while you're pruning.

Rod

Weed my email address to reply
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

crom wrote in news:k5v060l3po2kj8u5geo3vvcjv8qpv0bp02@
4ax.com:

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

Some hebes are very intolerant of cutting back to woody growth, even if you
leave some leafy bits at the bottom. I killed a big one this way. :-(
Still, it was very leggy, and now I can see the lilies.

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.

Yes this you can chop right back to a bare framework, it will be all the
better for it, and will be much less prone to greenfly and flower better if
well pruned from time to time.

Note though that honeysuckle is one of those things that climbs up to the
light then spreads out, so if the bottom is shady, it may always have a
tendency to go leaping up towards the light.

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
--

"crom" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

Can anyone offer me some advice about these two plants. We moved into
an old house where the garden has been left to go a little wild(!) We
didn't do much to the plant life last year (waiting to see what would
appear etc) but now have some firm plans.

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.

Can't help on the Hebe but AFAIK you can hack honesuckle around pretty
brutally and it will grow back.

ISTR we got ours as a chopped hunk of stem and root from someone else and it
grew out just fine.

If in doubt, chop back 50% of the stems this year and see if they grow back.

If not, you can just guide new growth back down to cover the bare bits near
the base - honeysuckle wanders all over the place.

HTH
Dave R

In article ,
crom wrote:

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

You can try, but it may well not work. Many (all?) hebes are New
Zealand plants and are not adapted to browsing, so don't like that
treatment. But, if it would be unsightly if left as it is, you don't
have much to lose.

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.

It depends on the honeysuckle. Some can be cut back to ground level,
and others do not shoot well from very old wood. If there are lots
of separate stems rising from the ground, then it is almost certainly
one of the former, but it might be a bit of a shock to remove them
all. But, generally, honeysuckles can be pruned very hard, so it
is worth being fairly tough on it.

If it responds to being cut back and having old or dead stems cut
out by shooting from the base, you can then remove the other old
stems in successive years. I has some completely tangled
L. japonica, so I have sheared them off at ground level. They
clearly didn't like that but are reshooting.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Thanks very much for the incredibly swift response. I will definitely
be a regular visitor now that we're trying to tackle 'the wilderness'
out the back!

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004 18:10:36 +0000, crom wrote:

Hello all,

Can anyone offer me some advice about these two plants. We moved into
an old house where the garden has been left to go a little wild(!) We
didn't do much to the plant life last year (waiting to see what would
appear etc) but now have some firm plans.

There is a hebe that has got very woody and patchy but still has new,
healthy shoots appearing now about 2 feet off the ground. The
gardening book we have says 'gentle clipping in March'. But is it
possible to cut is back hard and encourage growth from the woody
stems?

The same question about the honeysuckle really. This too has plenty of
twisted, woody stems - very thick in places - and no foliage until you
get to about 4-5 feet from the ground.



The Hebe is 50:50, sometimes it kills them, sometimes not. Cutting
hard if you see signs of new growth below is sometimes possible. The
good news - cuttings are about as easy as cuttings get, so put some
cuttings in while you're pruning.

Rod

Weed my email address to reply
http://website.lineone.net/~rodcraddock/index.html

Rod,

re your post:

The Hebe is 50:50, sometimes it kills them, sometimes not. Cutting
hard if you see signs of new growth below is sometimes possible. The
good news - cuttings are about as easy as cuttings get, so put some

You'll have to forgive me. I'm a very keen but newbie gardener! What
do you mean by cuttings? Do you mean that I can take cuttings and then
get a new plant (see what I mean by newbie)!! If so, what do you mean
by "put some in"? Can you help or point me in the direction of an
online source about "taking cuttings" aimed at numpties.

Cheers,
Crom

Rod,

re your post:

The Hebe is 50:50, sometimes it kills them, sometimes not. Cutting
hard if you see signs of new growth below is sometimes possible. The
good news - cuttings are about as easy as cuttings get, so put some

You'll have to forgive me. I'm a very keen but newbie gardener! What
do you mean by cuttings? Do you mean that I can take cuttings and then
get a new plant (see what I mean by newbie)!! If so, what do you mean
by "put some in"? Can you help or point me in the direction of an
online source about "taking cuttings" aimed at numpties.

Cheers,
Crom

You'll have to forgive me. I'm a very keen but newbie gardener! What
do you mean by cuttings? Do you mean that I can take cuttings and then
get a new plant (see what I mean by newbie)!! If so, what do you mean
by "put some in"? Can you help or point me in the direction of an
online source about "taking cuttings" aimed at numpties.

Just to come back to my own question (having read some books) in case
there are any other newbies searching for help.

Yep, taking cuttings really means new plants!!

There are different techniques depending upon the type of plant but
most centre around cutting off a bit of the plant and then persuading
roots to start to grow from the cut off bit and a new plant to form.
Most techniques use rooting hormone compound (I used baby bio's roota
and am having some success) but it's worth doing some reading because
there are loads of ways to try depending on the plant.

HTH,
Crom

In article , crom
writes

You'll have to forgive me. I'm a very keen but newbie gardener! What
do you mean by cuttings? Do you mean that I can take cuttings and then
get a new plant (see what I mean by newbie)!! If so, what do you mean
by "put some in"? Can you help or point me in the direction of an
online source about "taking cuttings" aimed at numpties.

Just to come back to my own question (having read some books) in case
there are any other newbies searching for help.

Yep, taking cuttings really means new plants!!

There are different techniques depending upon the type of plant but
most centre around cutting off a bit of the plant and then persuading
roots to start to grow from the cut off bit and a new plant to form.
Most techniques use rooting hormone compound (I used baby bio's roota
and am having some success) but it's worth doing some reading because
there are loads of ways to try depending on the plant.

If you've got a lot of material, you can get away with cutting a lot of
4 to 6 inch sticks, cutting each just below a leaf node (where the leaf
comes from the stem), removing all but the topmost leaf, sticking all
the twigs into a pot of compost (lots of other media are better than
compost, but compost is what I have) so that only the top inch shows out
of the ground, watering till moist, the putting the whole pot into a
plastic bag tying a knot in the top, and leaving it in a shaded place.

Every month or so, open the bag, remove any rotten leaves, and re-seal.
Eventually you'll see fresh new growth on at least one of the cuttings
and with luck on more of them. Open the bag at the top and keep a good
eye on the water situation - keep the soil moist but not wet.

Once you see roots coming out of the bottom of the pot, your cutting is
well established and you can pot it on till it's a reasonable size for
planting out.

It's not the best method by a long way, but it doesn't take much effort
or skill ;-)

Fuchsias and pelargoniums are good for confidence-building ;-)


--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

Thanks very much for your help, Kay. I'll be definitely trying out
some of these techniques.

Cheers,
Crom