Ceanothus mistake?

I love this plant, but always though it too big for my 5mx5m garden.
Recently I heard from several sources that you can train it against a wall/fence. So I thought I'd give it a go. I bought one yesterday (burkwoodii) but didn't notice until I got home that it says if you train it against a wall, it will stick out 5ft!
This is predicted growth over 10 years, but that's hoooge! Do you think I'll be able to keep it in check?
Also, what would be est to train it up-trellis nailed to the fence or wires?
Thanks

 

Use raffia to hold it together as this will not do any damage to stem .

And you can prune to contain size you wish shrub to be.DB as big as you want or as small as you wants.

I would give a small prune back end of yr to keep tidy then a harder prune around now just before all new growth starts to grow.

This is what I do with mine and works for me hope this has been of some help.

[ 09. March 2008, 08:35 PM: Message edited by: Scotkat ]

 

I agree with scotkat's advice. Trellis is a good idea as when it comes to painting you can easily unncrew the trellis, prop it amd paint behind before ree fixing.

My experince with ceanothus is that whilst light regular poruning is fine, pruning of neglected bushes is largly a wasted efort as they often die back in a similar way to lavender.

Any stem growth thats too heavy for rafi can be tied using strips of bike inner tube.

 

Thanks guys! I'm off out now to get some trellis. I mean the stuff that comes on rolls which is OK for me as I've no intention of ever painting that fence again! I'll get some raffia too.
It's only a small specimen at the moment-will it grow much in the first year?

 

I've pruned my plant over many years, to shape the bush, but only alternate years. Prune as soon as the flowers die off. If you prune now, all you will do is cut the flower buds off.

 

LesH what I ment when pruning now is taking dead growth away not any new.