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Pyracantha Coming Away from Wall
justincolson
Posts: 3
My garden has a long established and very vigorous hedge of pyracantha (seems to be several plants of two different varieties - some red berries, others orange) which had been trained against a north facing brick wall. It looks like it was originally trained on using plastic trellis netting type stuff.
More of the plastic support seems to have broken off in the past year or so, and now the whole hedge is really slumping forward, away from the wall. There is a clear 1ft or so gap opened up between the hedge and the wall at the top now - it used to be flush against it. I can only imagine its going to continue getting worse, because all the weight is at the front, pulling it away from the wall.
I've tried to tie back one or two of the bigger stems to the old plastic supports where they are screwed in, but the thorns make it very difficult, and the hedge is so heavy its very difficult to drag it back towards the wall.
What would be the best way of getting the hedge back against the wall?
Is there any alternative to cutting it back REALLY hard and putting in some new wire supports/eyelets screwed into the wall? If I did cut it back really hard, I guess that would mean losing a years' flowers and berries
Would late winter/early spring be the best time to do that if I did?
Thanks!
More of the plastic support seems to have broken off in the past year or so, and now the whole hedge is really slumping forward, away from the wall. There is a clear 1ft or so gap opened up between the hedge and the wall at the top now - it used to be flush against it. I can only imagine its going to continue getting worse, because all the weight is at the front, pulling it away from the wall.
I've tried to tie back one or two of the bigger stems to the old plastic supports where they are screwed in, but the thorns make it very difficult, and the hedge is so heavy its very difficult to drag it back towards the wall.
What would be the best way of getting the hedge back against the wall?
Is there any alternative to cutting it back REALLY hard and putting in some new wire supports/eyelets screwed into the wall? If I did cut it back really hard, I guess that would mean losing a years' flowers and berries
Would late winter/early spring be the best time to do that if I did?Thanks!
0
Posts
The wall is just under 6ft, and the hedge is currently a few inches taller than that.
Wall trained shrubs need a lot of yearly controlling and once mature, a lot of the work is to thin out and control a portion of branches from maturing to a point of causing uneven weight distribution. Your shrub has got too mature and the branches at over 6 ft will mean heavy rain or even wind can cause it to peel away from the wall due to its weight.
I would prune it all down to 4 ft and then continue to thin the growth from 4 ft downwards. I know it's not the advice you want to hear, but a mature shrub will rejuvenate quite well. You may lose flowers and berries, for a year or two, but trying to prop a shrub that dense and thick is just going to cause more possible problems in the not too distant future. Others may offer a different view.