pyracantha firethorn

nicholas218 · June 2023

I have a few of these in my garden, The (up until now) most successful mature shrub is on a South West facing wall. It reliably is always covered in white flowers and then fruit. The others I have are looking fine and coming into flower and covered in bees

This year the problem shrub's leaves look healthy enough but a lot of the flower heads are quite dried up with only a few flowers. I wonder if like quite a few plants, last summer's heat might be to blame. As it's not going to provide much of a show this year I'd like to take the opportunity to reshape it a bit. It's really too big as it is but I am worried that cutting it back too hard might be damaging. If I do want to reduce the height and the spread, when do you think would be a good time to do that please?

Ceres · June 2023

Pyracantha is one of the plants that can suffer from fireblight so I think this has to be considered as a possible cause for the shrivelled flowers. https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/fireblight If you follow the advice on this RHS page then you should be able to ascertain if this is the cause and to take remedial action.

https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/pyracantha-to-grow/ This also deals with pyracantha diseases and also advice on when to prune.

It's always worrying when a plant shows unusual "behaviour" and it could be something as innocuous as last summer's hot, dry weather but it is best to check it isn't anything worse.

Sorry to sound alarmist but a stitch in time saves nine, as they say.

nicholas218 · June 2023

Thanks I did see that rhs advice, cutting out the impacted branches seems the way to go. Once the flowers are over I think I'll cut it back. It's a shame that will mean no attractive berries this year but probably best in the long run.

Thanks for your advice

Mrs-B3-Southampton,-Hants · June 2023

It worked for me.

Fairygirl · June 2023

It's more likely to be a bit of scab or similar, rather than fireblight. You can cut out any affected branches, and they should recover. Fireblight isn't as common as many people believe.

It could also be down to very dry conditions, especially against a wall in that aspect, and it isn't able to fully support all the flowers and therefore it's disposing of them. As far as cutting the dead areas out - it's just a question of doing it carefully. Either way, you'll lose some flowers/berries. It's just how it is with this type of shrub where you get both.

A photo would help though

KeenOnGreen · June 2023

We have a huge Pyracantha hedge, and often cut it back by several feet. They really are forgiving of severe pruning, but we avoid cutting until frosts have passed, and don't trim it on very hot days, just to keep stress to a minimum.

We have had Fireblight, when we tried to extend our hedge. The only solution was to get rid of those plants, and not to plant any more Pyracantha in that spot (we used Privet instead).

In Summer, our hedge often has burnt looking brown bits, but it's just bits naturally dying off, before the fresh green growth comes in. If it was Fireblight, you would see the whole plant go brown and die (or at least that was our experience of Fireblight).

nicholas218 · June 2023

Thanks for all your helpful comments. At the moment I'm thinking leaving things until we get a period of a few days below 18C and then taking off quite a lot of the dried up flower heads. I'll then over a few sessions start shaping it up. It usually puts out a lot of new growth over the summer anyway so fingers crossed.

@Fairygirl suggested a picture so here goes

pyracantha firethorn

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