I have a large pyracantha growing near the side access to my house. Cutting it at the wrong time seems to have left it tatty and reduced the flowers and berries. When should it be pruned?
As its common name, firethorn, suggests, pyracantha makes an excellent impenetrable barrier: the ultimate plant in home security. The dense cover of thorns also makes it an excellent nesting and roosting cover for small birds(particularly good if you have bad cats in your ‘hood). The flowers are an invaluable source of nectar to bees, too, and the birds will eat the berries. So there is much to like, but how to solve your problem, particuarly as hard renovation can make pyracantha more vulnerable to the unsightly bacterial disease fireblight?
Shorten all outward growth and any other wayward shoots now. You will lose some flower and berries, but you can’t get around that. In late summer, cut back any new growth to keep the shape and expose the berries for ripening. If you want to keep it trim, aim to cut two or three times a summer. The flowers and fruit are always borne on spurs from old wood (like apples), thus if you keep to regularly pruning young growth, you should be able to minimise the flowers you lose.
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