Can you help? (Pyracantha and Berberis)
John Neale Baraclough
from "Lawrie Willcox" <lawrie....@virgin.net> contains these words:
> Last year my girlfriend's mum planted some Pyracantha Firethorn and Berberis
> Thunbergii Atropurpurea as a deterrent to the unruly children next door.
> However, the plants don't appear to be growing much, in fact she says they
> just look like dried sticks! Is this normal for the first year or so, or
> has something gone wrong and she'll need to replant. Since none of the
> family have any gardening knowlege any advice on the care of these type of
> plants would be greatly appreciated.
If they spent all last summer without leaves and looking like sticks,
they are dead.But if they had leaves which fell off in autumn, that
is normal. Those plants naturally lose their leaves during winter and
young plants in winter look like dead sticks to a cursory glance.By
now the berberis should show tiny knobs along its sticks. which will
become leaf buds.On either of them, very gently scrape with a
thumbnail a small patch of twig at the bottom,if they are alive you
should see green under the brown (yellow for the berberis).
When a plant first goes in, it works to make a strong root system
before it can start to grow upwards and outwards.It will take a few
years for the plants to become large enough and dense enough to repel
neighbours.Assuming they come back in to leaf this spring,buy any
liquid manure plant feed for shrubs at the supermarket or garden
centre, dilute it according to instructions and give them a bucketful
each, every summer month.In between monthly feeds, give them a bucket
of plain water each once a week.That will help them develop
strongly.Be patient, shrubs don't grow to full size in one season
like marigolds do.It can take years:-)
Janet
Peter J King
> Last year my girlfriend's mum planted some Pyracantha Firethorn and Berberis
> Thunbergii Atropurpurea as a deterrent to the unruly children next door.
> However, the plants don't appear to be growing much, in fact she says they
> just look like dried sticks! Is this normal for the first year or so, or
> has something gone wrong and she'll need to replant. Since none of the
> family have any gardening knowlege any advice on the care of these type of
> plants would be greatly appreciated.
The Berberis is deciduous, the Pyracanthus evergreen. If they lost their
leaves over winter, the Berberis might be OK - you'll have to wait 'til
Spring to find out; if they lost their leaves before that (in the Summer,
say) then the Berberis is probably an ex-shrub. In either case it sounds
as though the Pyracanthus has definitely kicked the bucket.
As I remember from my experience some years ago (though with an evergreen
variety), Berberis can get off to a slow start, so if it is just leafless
for the Winter, she might find that it begins to get going properly this
year.
Peter J. King
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Nick Maclaren
In article <Pine.OSF.4.21.000203...@ermine.ox.ac.uk>, Peter J King <shil...@ermine.ox.ac.uk> writes:
|> On Wed, 2 Feb 2000, Lawrie Willcox wrote:
|>
|> > Last year my girlfriend's mum planted some Pyracantha Firethorn and Berberis
|> > Thunbergii Atropurpurea as a deterrent to the unruly children next door.
|> > However, the plants don't appear to be growing much, in fact she says they
|> > just look like dried sticks! Is this normal for the first year or so, or
|> > has something gone wrong and she'll need to replant. Since none of the
|> > family have any gardening knowlege any advice on the care of these type of
|> > plants would be greatly appreciated.
|>
|> The Berberis is deciduous, the Pyracanthus evergreen. If they lost their
|> leaves over winter, the Berberis might be OK - you'll have to wait 'til
|> Spring to find out; if they lost their leaves before that (in the Summer,
|> say) then the Berberis is probably an ex-shrub. In either case it sounds
|> as though the Pyracanthus has definitely kicked the bucket.
Not necessarily. As with many other plants, pyracantha is only
evergreen in low-stress conditions. It will lose its leaves in
hard winters, and probably under other conditions of stress. I
would leave it until May at least before deciding it is definitely
dead.
Up until the recent mild winters (say 5-7 years ago), my pyracantha
lost its leaves most winters.
Regards,
Nick Maclaren,
University of Cambridge Computing Service,
New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QG, England.
Email: nm...@cam.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679
John Neale Baraclough
from Peter J King <shil...@ermine.ox.ac.uk> contains these words:
> The Berberis is deciduous, the Pyracanthus evergreen.
Pyracantha is not reliably evergreen; certainly not in cold
areas.So, a bare twigged pyracantha may be perfectly well, just
asleep. The bark scratch I suggested will give a more accurate picture.
Janet
Peter J King
>me> The Berberis is deciduous, the Pyracanth[a] evergreen. [...]
> Not necessarily. As with many other plants, pyracantha is only
> evergreen in low-stress conditions. It will lose its leaves in
> hard winters, and probably under other conditions of stress. I
> would leave it until May at least before deciding it is definitely
> dead.
>
> Up until the recent mild winters (say 5-7 years ago), my pyracantha
> lost its leaves most winters.
I stand corrected (I even managed absent-mindedly to change the ending
from "a" to "us"). I'm surprised, though; I'd never seen a Pyracantha
stressed enough to lose its leaves. It's a good job none of mine ever did
-- I'd probably have whipped them out without a second thought.
Nick Maclaren
In article <Pine.OSF.4.21.00020...@ermine.ox.ac.uk>, Peter J King <shil...@ermine.ox.ac.uk> writes:
|> On 4 Feb 2000, Nick Maclaren wrote:
|>
|> >me> The Berberis is deciduous, the Pyracanth[a] evergreen. [...]
|>
|> > Not necessarily. As with many other plants, pyracantha is only
|> > evergreen in low-stress conditions. It will lose its leaves in
|> > hard winters, and probably under other conditions of stress. I
|> > would leave it until May at least before deciding it is definitely
|> > dead.
|> >
|> > Up until the recent mild winters (say 5-7 years ago), my pyracantha
|> > lost its leaves most winters.
|>
|> I stand corrected (I even managed absent-mindedly to change the ending
|> from "a" to "us"). I'm surprised, though; I'd never seen a Pyracantha
|> stressed enough to lose its leaves. It's a good job none of mine ever did
|> -- I'd probably have whipped them out without a second thought.
They don't drop at the first cold snap, certainly. In my experience
they are about as about as evergreen as privet, and both those are
slightly more so than Lonicera japonica. This year, none have
dropped their leaves, but the last one's leaves are damaged where
they have not been protected by the house.
Jean Pelmont
We have some Pyracantha around. They don't loose their leaves in winter,
although we have freezing temperatures especially at night. The climate
here (Grenoble, Alps) has sharp contrasts, from very hot to quite cold
(- 10° C or below is not rare). Personnaly I do not like spiny shrubs. I
removed most of my Berberis, and preferred Cotoneaster lacteus, Photinia
sp. and Viburnum tinus, growing very vigorously, much faster than the
Pyracantha. The remaining Berberis is growing like a weed during hot
days, I am obliged to cut branches very often unless it would spread
crazily.
Regards
P.S I am discovering this ng !
--
Jean
Nick Maclaren
Jean Pelmont <jean.p...@wanadoo.fr> wrote:
>John Neale Baraclough <janet.a...@zetnet.co.uk> wrote (écrivait) :
>
>> The message <Pine.OSF.4.21.000203...@ermine.ox.ac.uk>
>> from Peter J King <shil...@ermine.ox.ac.uk> contains these words:
>>
>> > The Berberis is deciduous, the Pyracanthus evergreen.
>>
>> Pyracantha is not reliably evergreen; certainly not in cold
>> areas.So, a bare twigged pyracantha may be perfectly well, just
>> asleep. The bark scratch I suggested will give a more accurate picture.
>
>although we have freezing temperatures especially at night. The climate
>here (Grenoble, Alps) has sharp contrasts, from very hot to quite cold
>(- 10° C or below is not rare). Personnaly I do not like spiny shrubs. I
>removed most of my Berberis, and preferred Cotoneaster lacteus, Photinia
>sp. and Viburnum tinus, growing very vigorously, much faster than the
>Pyracantha. The remaining Berberis is growing like a weed during hot
>days, I am obliged to cut branches very often unless it would spread
>crazily.
I hope that is minus ten, not minus a hundred!
My experience is that pyracantha will not lose its leaves from a
one night snap of -10, but will if there is a prolonged cold spell
with nights down there and days below freezing - especially if
coupled with a wind. As I posted, it hasn't lost its leaves here
for 5-7 years now, but used to most years.
Having just pruned my pyracantha, I sympathise with your position
on spiny plants :-( I have a Berberis vulgaris, which is viciously
spiny, but it needs little pruning - thank heavens!