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How to plant Climbing Pyracantha?
Rubi
Posts: 131
I picked up some climbing Pyracantha today from Morrisons. They’re only small at the minute.
I would like to plant them to climb up some fencing, which are East, South and North facing.
Please can I have some advice on when and how I should plant them. How far apart, whether they are self climbers or will need trellis/wires.
Thanks.
0
Posts
They are fairly quick to grow and easy to train. I have 2 one Orange and the other Yellow.
I just put a measure of Bone meal in the planting hole (clay soil)
I prune mine to grow against a dry stone wall,by keeping them behind canes,and pruning out any shoots/branches that are pointing towards me,outwards. The Orange berried one has got the idea now and is leaning against the wall of its own accord,the smaller one still needs the canes pushing it back. The blackbirds love the berries in the Autumn,and the bees love the blossom through the summer.
Wear gloves for the first few snips.
They need wires if you want to train them, trellis isn't strong enough . I have 3 against a 10ft long wall but just let them do their thing and trim them back every so often so they are a bit of a mess.
I have seen one trained so that the stems run al9ng each course of mortar between bricks , looks fantastic if you can be bothered!
They'll grow up against a wall or fence, but they aren't like clematis or roses - they're really stand alone shrubs that can be tied in on a support if you want to guide them in a specific direction. You can easily prune out stems which are growing outwards too much, but you'll sacrifice flowers and/or berries depending on when that's done. I have a couple against my boundary fence, and I've had them as a wall shrub near my front door in a previous garden. The blackbirds used to come on the front steps to eat the berries.
There's a few which are columnar, and just grow in that fashion, but if you don't have named varieties, you won't know if they are until they start growing.
You can cloud prune them too - I've seen a very good example of that against a stone wall on a cottage. Similar to what you describe @K67
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Thanks everyone for your very helpful replies
@Valley Gardener
I have clay soil also, so looks like I’ll be ok if yours have done well!
Do you have any pictures to show how you’re training them behind the canes please?
@Fairygirl Could I see yours also please?
@K67 I will definitely have a google to have a look at some pictures.
I wanted something for the birds in my garden as I don’t have anything bird friendly apart from the bird feeder. I get loads of sparrows and a few blackbirds and the odd robin in winter and early spring. (However, they all have disappeared for the last 2months or so and I don’t see them anymore. Anyone know why they might be gone?)
Can I place one in in the middle of two fences, so near to the fence post in between the two fence panels? Then another 2 post on? So there’ll be 6ft gap in between each plant.
And can I plant them in the ground at the size they are now or wait till they’re bigger?
Also will it look silly if I plant them all together? Should I break it up with something else? Or plant all four along one line of fence. I bought 2 yellow, one orange and one red.
I also bought a Climbing Jasmine Inverleith with them. The label on it says it grows 7m high, so I guess it’s more a rambler. Not sure how to plant that. Again, wanted it along the fence border, preferably on my north facing walls.