Plant ID/advice
Would anyone be able to ID this large plant for me? It's growing up and over a friend's window, and needs to be cut back to let more light in, but before it gets enthusiastically hacked it would be good to know what it is.
As a whole:
More detail on the leaves:
The base of the plant:
Can any of you lovely people help me ID this, and is there any advice for chopping it back in the best way? Thank you!
Last edited: 27 October 2016 07:43:53
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I think it is a Viburnum bodnantense. If it is ,it should start flowering soon, and will flower through the winter on bare stems. It will lose most of its leaves. I prune mine in Spring. Take out the thickest, oldest stems to ground level, and then prune the rest down by about half.
Certainly a Viburnum of some species or other.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
It looks very similar to my Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn'
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
My thoughts too, although my Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn' has been in flower for the last three weeks or so. I prune it just as fidget described.
Mine hasn't started flowering yet, but the buds are quite well formed
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
I don't give mine any special treatment. I don't think I've ever fed it or mulched it or taken care of it in any way
I hack it back to 5ft every year in the spring and it shoots up to about 7-8ft during the season. I can see the flower bud clusters now, but it'll be a while yet I think until I get flowers, I think it's usually Nov/Dec to around Feb/March mine flowers - despite my care..
Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
They are very rewarding but undemanding shrubs. But they do get big, very big--this was not a good place to have put one but it was probably planted while tiny. They basically work by throwing up long straight(ish) stems from the base. You get more flowers on older growth so try to avoid cropping it all over like a plant in a car park. As fidgetbones says, cut out some of the older growth altogether to keep it within bounds, but anywhere you have to cut back the long stems, you'll reduce its flower power. The best thing about them is that they will flower through the coldest months and smell wonderful. This is definitely a Viburnum x bodnantense hybrid--the most common sort you see is 'Dawn' with pink flowers, but there are others around, such as 'Charles Lamont' with white ones. They're all excellent.
My V. Charles Lamont grows near some clematis which get several feeds of clematis fertiliser throughout the growing season. This seems to suit it and it flowers well for a young shrub.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Aym, I'm no expert on Trollius or Stephanotis--I owned one of the latter as a pot plant which flourished really well for a bit, then all of a sudden died for no apparent reason! And have never grown the former at all, though I know it likes heavier soil and sun and have read that it's a bit picky. On Nerines, I can say that they need to be quite packed in to flower, and they don't seem to like transplanting very much and will sulk for a year afterwards. (So to my interest do Crocosmia).
One other thought is how much sun you get--I had assumed with my garden that it was quite sunny but the walls meant that I have slowly gone over to largely shade or partial shade lovers like Fuchsia, Hydrangea, Geranium, Pulmonaria, Roscoea, Heuchera. Surprisingly, I've had a lot of success with peonies even in part sun, and also with Crocosmia. But, like you, I have a minute little garden, so now I have to treat each plant as an experiment and if it doesn't like my conditions after a few years, I give it away.
I'll check for you a bit later Aym.
Id just add that now is not the time to be feeding most plants they're not growing at the moment so won't take up the nutrients and the soil will become sour and unbalanced.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.