Home Garden
# Home & Garden >> Plants, Flowers & Herbs >> Shrubs

When Do You Trim an Escallonia?

Evergreen and adaptable to most soil and sun conditions, escallonia (Escallonia spp.) is a flowering shrub that can fill plenty of landscape roles in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7 through 10, depending on cultivar. Escallonia is commonly recommended for coastal gardens because of its ability to stand up to wind and salt spray, but it is equally suited to woodland sites -- especially in warmer areas where it benefits from light shade. Often used as a hedge, this fast-growing shrub can be kept in check with annual pruning, whether you trim it into a formal shape, or let it take its natural rounded form.

  1. Early Season Attention

    • Escallonia can look worse for wear at the end of winter, particularly when your area experienced the occasional frost. The shrub, which has cultivars with mature heights ranging from 5 to15 feet, can suffer blackened leaves, stem tips and dropped buds. Prune in spring after temperatures are reliably above freezing to remove damaged and dead plant material. Scratch the bark with your fingernail if you are unsure whether a stem is dead -- if you see green beneath the bark the stem is still alive. The plant recovers quickly from frost damage, according to Washington State University Whatcom County Extension. Escallonia produces its red, pink or white flowers on both new and old wood in early summer. Pruning in spring doesn't deter blooming.

    Summer Shearing

    • With its small, rounded leaves, escallonia makes a neat formal hedge when you shear it consistently. Cut it back by at least one-third of its height in early spring when you want to reduce an escallonia's height, cutting it so it is narrower at the top than at the bottom. Otherwise shearing off all but 1 inch of new growth in summer -- maybe more than once depending on how neat you like to keep your yard -- keeps escallonia compact, though you might not see as many blooms.

    Renovations Required

    • Neglected escallonias or tall cultivars can benefit from renovation pruning in late winter to early spring to cut them down to size. Cut out one-third of the tallest, oldest stems at the base each year for three years. This process results in what is basically a new plant at the end of the three years. This can be effective for either formal hedges or informal specimen plants.

    Anytime Pruning Tips

    • Whatever the time of year you prune escallonia, wear gloves and protective clothing. The interior growth of the shrub has thorns that can cause nasty scratches. Pruning tools should be sharp and sterile to avoid passing diseases and fungus from plant to plant -- rubbing alcohol, household antiseptic cleaner or a 10-to-1 mix of water to household bleach can be used to sterilize tools. Tools are most effective when sized to the branch you need to cut. Bypass pruners safely cut stems up to 1/2 inch in diameter. Loppers trim branches up to 1 1/2 inches across, while a pruning saw makes short work of thicker stems.

Previous:

Next:

Shrubs
  1. When Do You Trim Japanese Yews?
  2. When Do You Plant Watermelons in Arkansas?
  3. When Do You Plant Gold Star Esperanza?
  4. When Do You Plant Watermelon in California?
  5. When Do You Trim Newly Planted Wax Privet?
  6. When Do You Plant Owari Satsuma?
  7. When Should You Plant Blackberries?
  8. When Do You Plant Strawberries in Washington?
  9. When Should You Plant Shallots?
  10. When Do You Transplant Dracaena?
  11. When to Trim a Scotch Broom Plant
  12. When Should You Trim Your Octopus Plant?

Home Garden © https://www.98905.com