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Plant ID and pruning/maintenance?

hj.reidhj.reid Posts: 17
Really grateful to know what this is and what I should do with it just now? It usually produces nice pinkish flowers in the summer but feel that the top looks a bit weary? Thank-you x



Posts

  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    Possibly an Escallonia.
    Do you have it as a free standing shrub?
    Or is it part of a hedge?

    If you want it to flower then pruning/ trimming after it has flowered around September time would be best.
    I don't have the anymore, they succumbed to a black spot that always looked awful here.

    But I trimmed them after flowering when we had them.
    Oh look.
    Lol the info is on here already. I was double checking my memory.

    https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-grow-escallonia/

    Sorry that is assuming it is Escallonia.
    You can if you want and might lose flowers for a year, but if it need taming you can cut them back quite hard feed and they will grow lots of new fresh shoots.

  • hj.reidhj.reid Posts: 17
    Yes, it looks like an Escallonia thank you so much. It is a free standing shrub as it was next to a Photonia Red Robin (which we had to take out for the usual reasons of not thriving etc) . Ah, yes I should have pruned back after flowering hence the dead growth at the top. Great - tomorrow's job, cut it back quite hard and wait... x
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I also thought it looked like Cotoneaster, but they don't have pink flowers. Or is that foliage from something else? It's hard to tell from the photo  :)
    If it's Escallonia, it's very bare. They're usually evergreen.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • hj.reidhj.reid Posts: 17
    It has this growth from the bottom? 🤔


  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    Escallonia can suffer from leaf spot which could explain the defoliation:

    https://www.rhs.org.uk/disease/escallonia-leaf-spot
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    Well spotted @Plantminded, exactly the reason why I gave up on ours.

    Not saying you should get rid hj.reid.
    Just do as you have decided but clear up any dead leaves.

    (Ours were bad because we had them in rather wet soil that didn't drain well so I think it made ours a worse and recurring problem).

    All those new shoots you have should fill out nicely.
  • MatthewSMatthewS Posts: 8
    Had the same problem with our escallonia which would progressively lose more and more leaves over the last few years until it lost them all by the end of last winter. It had discoloured leaves and I think at the time I looked it up and thought it was escallonia leaf spot. It would take ages for it to get going again so eventually I decided to pull it up and replace it with a rose. 
  • PlantmindedPlantminded Posts: 3,580
    The leaves on those new shoots look affected too. I would consider removing the shrub unless you are happy to prune and wait and see if it recovers @hj.reid.
    Wirral. Sandy, free draining soil.


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