Bloody Pyracntha!

[AramintaWildbloode]

I inherited three of them in my garden. They are the devil’s plant.

I practically need armour to prune them and they refuse to die.

Mine are enormous so would need a very strong bloke to dig out plus there are surrounding plants which I don’t want to damage.

The birds don’t seem to like their orange berries (and I detest orange so looking at them every autumn is insult to injury!) so I can see no benefit to the blimmin things at all.

Does anyone still plant these or are they a bit like bamboo - seemed a good idea twenty years ago?

I have inherited a couple they cut.me to shreds when I walk past. Evil plants.nice berries though

I inherited one 6 years ago. I chopped it down but couldn’t dig the root out. It won’t die! The whole garden was full of prickly, nasty plants which I’ve slowly tried to kill off.

Haha they are evil aren't they? I planted one to stop next door's kids peering over the fence at me. It worked a treat but they have long since moved out. Because it's against the boundary at least it's easy to dodge

I've cut down everything that can injure me from the garden! 🤣

I misread and thought this was on the Baby Names board 😂

We have one outside our front door. Had it cut back to a stump a few years ago when we had our garden redone, but the bastard didn't die. The stump is right up against the house wall, so I expect almost impossible to get out without damaging the house. I hack it back every so often when it starts to get in my way, but short of nuclear weaponry I'm not sure how to get rid.

You need to reduce them to a stump and treat them with SBK brushwood (or tree stump) killer. That'll fix them. Use a mattock if you need to get the stump out or a saw to get it low down.

The only infections I've got from gardening for forty plus years are from Pyracantha thorns. They are genuinely nasty, and I've wondered if there's something in the thorn's coat that makes them particularly prone to causing infection.

They do look nice when the blossom's out and the pollinators do love them, but...

I battled with some more of the horrible stuff today and have told it that Stump Killer has been ordered.

i quite like the idea of Firethorn for a name. . You might enjoy the current Diaresis baby name thread if you haven’t already seen it

I love mine. Beautiful flowers in spring and lovely berries for colour and for the birds in winter.

I got fed up of mine and got a tree surgeon to destroy it.

So relieved I never have to prune it again.

Me too! I have pyracantha hedge on the front, it's about 6' high and 25' long and at the moment it is full of glorious red berries and looks lovely. We do keep it ruthlessly clipped though.

The first thing I did when I moved to my current house was start taking out the pyracantha! It took a few attempts though, because as you say, they’re evil! I hacked it back a bit at a time (amidst much swearing!), then eventually painted what was left with stump killer. You need a very thick waxed coat and some serious rose gauntlets though if you’re not going to be cut to shreds! Worth the investment though, if you ask me!

In their defence, they are a seriously good burglar deterrent.😁

Cut it back to the stump. Horrid stuff. You’ll then need to use the chemicals on the stump

Hahah- mine have landed me in hospital twice from cuts, pokes and pricks- I’ve actually lost sensation in the area they’ve stabbed me in. Mine is a HUGE tree and I can’t cut it down as it provides privacy from the neighbours in our terraced house.

Cut/saw it back as much as you can, then file away the bark with a rasp ( or whatever you have) on the trunk as close to the ground as possible, in a complete ring. You need only to remove about an inch all the way round. everything above the ring will die. Inspect below the ring weekly and rub off any new shoots which form with the rasp when they are tiny. The plant will weaken and eventually die within twelve months. Do not leave new shoots to grow as they provide strength to the plant. It cannot survive without leaves. The root will die and after some years, it will come up easily. If nothing else, this teaches you patience!

OR, saw it off and treat the stump with stumpkiller. This teaches you efficiency and sensible time management!