My bush is out of control!

[misdee]

it taking over the path. its a flowering bush, no idea on what it is tho, but last year was a small thing, now its massive. I would actually like to take some cuttings from it and plant some mroe of it along my fence where my noisey neighbours are, but am also worried about killing the thing, as i dont do gardening, its usually peters job lol. anyone got any ideas?

lol!

you can email it to me if you wish cheesy_pooff at hotmail dot com...

my bush

That is ceanothus! Good call, VVV!

ok, so how do i deal with it? can i cut it back now?

oh bum i cant view it from my work pc....will have to take your word for it Jan

I am good though, arent i?

If VVV doesn't know what to do with it I can look it up in my flowering shrub expert(when I have finished my pizza)

Now it has flowered you can hack it back really really ferociously - it will love it.

THe flowers form next year on this years growth, bear that in mind when chopping it back.

Ha Janh we are only in Yorkshire and although our two plants were glorious they are over now. Misdee I would say now was a good time to cut it back - sooner the better and then it will put on growth to flower on next year. Sounds like you will have to be fairly harsh. Take cuttings from shoots that haven't flowerd. I would take loads and stick them around a couple of pots in case they don't all take.

advice for me too please VVV - mine is in a pot (it's a blue one) (blue plant that is)(blue pot too come to think of it but never mind!) and it grew immensely since last year, should I cut it back? Leave it alone? Take it out of the pot and plant it in the ground?

Message withdrawn

ITs one of those plants that will do well anywhere Jan. But if you want it to grow and grow then you should plant in in a bigger pot.

That said, our one grew to about 16ft in 3 years (from a tiny 12 inch bush).

Its up to you - you dont have to clip it at all IMO. Its just whether you need to control it.

It will get quite woody at the stem and base so if you are keeping it in the pot it might benefit from a good hack back. Its best to do it straight after flowering though, because, as i said before, next years flowers will appear on this years growth so you want as much time for growth as possible through the summer.

The size it is now will do fine (we have v small front garden) so if it'll be OK staying in its pot I'll just cut it back once the beautiful blue flowers have died.

Thanks, VVV

PS Should I feed it? Top dress? Leave alone apart from pruning?

It needs feck all really. You can really abuse it.

Doesnt need loads of water either.

I should call myself VVVTitchmarshQV

OK, I'm off out right now to tell it it's a useless f*ck and I'll dig it up if it doesn't do better next year

jan, i havent touched mine. my mum planted it last year for me, and thats it. it rarely gets watered properly, and it just keeps growing.

Er...well i wouldnt try to fuck it Jan...but whatever floats your boat

Misdee - you might need a saw to prune yours

Mine is like this btw.

Have discovered that there are loads of varieties with different flowering patterns so I guess mine isn't late for it!

I have one of those, and two of these

I originally got the ones i linked to because i have side path with a border the whole way along that the wind really whips down and burnt the other plants there. They make BRILLIANT wind breaks!

I have mine growing against the wall under the bay window at the front of the house. As the house is on a slight slope it is raised up at the front. I need to prune it to get it in shape. Was going to do it last night but by the time I'd finished cooking up concoctions to use up all the strawberries from PYO it was 10 pm.

Pruned mine tonight. Now looks very shapely.

mine hasnt been pruned yet.