Crazy growing cistus

Last year while we were on a walk, we saw a lovely plant in a garden, with no idea what it was.



So I took a photo and a local garden centre sold us a cistus.

We decided to replace an unattractive pampas grass with it and here it is before we threw down a load of golden flint gravel around it.



Here it is exactly one year later



Absolutely crazy growth.
This is it with a few more flowers three weeks ago.



Love the way this has turned out, but I think I'm going to have to prune it back somewhat.

 

Established plants don’t need regular pruning, and often don't recover well from it. So pruning should generally be limited to the removal of any dead or frost-damaged growth in spring.
You can give it a light trim to remove the dead flowers once they have finished.

 

Thank you for the advice. What if it starts encroaching in neighbouring plants, though?

 

Looks like Alan Fradd, if so RHS sat height and spread are 0.5-1m.

We had some that outgrew their space and I cut them back straight after flowering. I probably took about a third off, but did make sure I was still in green growth. Ours were much denser than yours though.

 

All you can do is prune it and hope!

 

Yeah it's skinny. Will it thicken up, do you think?

 

I don’t know, mine was corbariensus so a different variety. It may be that Alan is a more open type

 

The accepted wisdom must have changed @Palustris? I was told to lightly trim all over every year after flowering in order to keep the shrub well-furnished and 'young'. They certainly don't like being cut back hard into old wood, though.
On the bright side, cuttings are very easy to root, so it's not a bad idea to do a few each year in case you need a replacement.

 

I thought that was what I said, except the bit about old wood.

 

Sort of

 

Okay, I’ll try that, thanks. I like the way it’s exploded with flowers. Absolutely brillliant. So I’ll see if I can grow some more.