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ceanothus thyrsiflorus repens

JoJo7JoJo7 Posts: 2

I  love my ceanothus, but it is huge!! Over 7ft tall and 12 ft wide and much admired. Was the labelling wrong at the garden centre? Your page says it should be much smaller than this. I would like to know when is best to cut back and how much? Up to now i've just cut back after flowering and it seems to be ok. Also - my neighbour is asking for a cutting. Advice please on how and when. Thanks

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  • Dave MorganDave Morgan Posts: 3,123

    Your'e pruning it at the right time, and they can become very large, but they do respond well to pruning, they even enjoy it. As for cuttings I usually take them after flowering as semi hardwood cuttings. I have tried softwood but I get a better result with the semi hardwood cuttings.

    Take the cuttings at the end of summer about 6 inch cuttings and pot in a 50/50 mix of MPC and perlite, dip in hormone rooting powder and pop in a cold frame to overwinter. It works for me but it's not the strict way to do semi hardwood cuttings. You may loose some but I always do about 8 cuttings. If I have too many over  flog or swap the extra to my local shop which sells plants in summer.

  • JoJo7JoJo7 Posts: 2

    Dear Dave,  Thank you so much for your help. I'm glad I've been doing ok. Will wait till end of summer for cuttings and follow your advice.

     

  • Babs12Babs12 Posts: 2

    Dear Dave,

    my ceanothus thyrsiflorus repens  is now 9 years old and is very top heavy with sparse growth  the base. Can  be pruned REALLY Hard or should I dig it up?

  • ERICS MUMERICS MUM Posts: 566
    Babs12 says:

    Dear Dave,

    my ceanothus thyrsiflorus repens  is now 9 years old and is very top heavy with sparse growth  the base. Can  be pruned REALLY Hard or should I dig it up?

    See original post

    im not Dave but this might help anyway !
    early this summer (end May - beginning of June) I hacked back my variegated ceanothus 'Zanzibar' because it was empty in the middle, making it impossible to prune evenly back to a good shape.
    i hacked it back to about 6 inches, completely hard wood and no leaves.  Today it's produced a couple of dozen new variegated leaves around the base and I can see it's going to bounce back. I promise to keep it trimmed this time !

     

  • Babs12Babs12 Posts: 2

    Thank you Erica Mum

    my ceanothus is about 8 foot high and wide  so that seems a bit drastic but will definitely give it some consideration. Thanks for your suggestion. It grows in my daughter's garden and hasn't been trained regularly so has gone wild.

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