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Chinese Lantern Tree

Forester_PeteForester_Pete Posts: 175
in Plants

image

 I have this growing under a hawthorn tree in the corner of the garden and while it usually flowers quite well it seems to be a big straggly. Is it worth trying to prune it a bit to make it denser? If so when and how much.

Thanks

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Posts

  • landgirl100landgirl100 Posts: 655

    Which plant, the Hebe or the Potentilla?

  • Chrissy the gardenerChrissy the gardener Posts: 1,072

    Not a Hebe I would think the Chinese lantern tree is a crinodendron, sorry about spelling. It does tend to grow quite loose.

  • Forester_PeteForester_Pete Posts: 175

    Yes it is a Crinodendron.

     

  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841

    Pruning won't make it much denser but will help a little. It wants to grow into a small tree really, mine are about 10 feet tall after pruning about 10 years ago. They are evergreen and can be pruned at any time of year. I think I did mine in Spring but Autumn would be fine too. Mine are now seeding and also have next year's flowers growing too. Pruning will therefore lose next year's flowers but they should grow strongly again.

  • HCAHCA Posts: 129

    Crinodendron hookerianum is native to Chile and can get quite large.  Lovely in flower and next years flower buds should be visible around now.  They are on a pendulous stalk about the size of a finger nail.

  • Rachael.poRachael.po Posts: 1
    Hiya, could anyone advise me if my Chinese lantern plant is dying or if it’s just losing its leaves for winter? 

    They are suppose to be to be very easy to look after and I’m worried that I’ve done something wrong. 

    Thank yoi. 
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Good grief, Rachael, easy is not a word I would apply! My neighbour, now long gathered to his fathers, grew one with great pride, a magnificent specimen which still survives. He delighted in taking cuttings, another extremely difficult thing to do, and giving me one which he could then observe dying, slowly. I must have killed off four or five before fate removed him. I was quite fond of him but it was a relief from the cuttings point of view.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,568
    Rachael, it depends whether you mean chinese lantern tree, Crinodendron as in the pic at the top of the thread,  or chinese lantern plant, physalis, which is a dead easy perennial (to the point of thuggish) which dies back for the winter and puts up new shoots in spring.

    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    I think Rachael means Physalis rather than Crinodendron but need to know which one


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,568
    If it's the Physalis that I have, it's a thug and will most likely it'll pop up all over the place in spring!
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
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