Good Afternoon. My first post... I hope someone can help! I've recently moved and gained a rather 'mature' garden. I have a large pyracanthas shrub covering a garage wall, and although it looks fantastic it's overhanging a path and thorns are a bit of hazard. I think i will need to cut about 50% of the schrub away, and was just wondering what would be the best time of year and would the pyracanthas survive such a severe pruning. Thanks!
Welcome and yes the thorns are a pest are they not? You can cut them back as hard as you choose and they will regrow from dormant buds below the cut. I do not know if it is the best time to do it, but we almost always prune ours back once the birds have stripped the berries, say in about a months time? Wear good thick gloves though!
Ahh! Green razor wire! Pyracanthus is pretty evil stuff to handle but you can find a solution here :D I agree with Pal - let the birds have at it for winter food then chop it back as hard as you want before they decide to nest in it. It's robust and should come back but if not you will find plenty of self sown 'bird presents' popping up all over the place that you can replace it with.
Froggy - :D Pyracanthus will take a trimming at any time and come through perfectly well - but I agree - wait until the berries have gone. You often find birds nesting in it if it's dense enough, too, so watch out to see if you have any, Eucalyptus, because you wouldn't want to disturb them!
Thanks you all for the info! Very helpful. I was looking over a couple of gardening forums and it looks like I joined the right one. Hopefully I will be able to help someone out myself one day! :pray:
I have a red pyracantha thats quite tame and only requires a light trim, but mu "Orange Glow" grows a mile a minute! If you just lightly trim the berries seem to fail, but if I really hack back I get lots of fresh shoots and better berries.
Thanks Waco... mine's the orange variety too, so I'll be brutal as it's battling for space with a virginia creeper! I have a couple of shrubs I need help identifying, do I just post them in the gallery section?
Hi, Eucalyptus! There's an ident area in the General Discussion Forum - just go to the forum home and scroll down to find it.
