Re: pruning cistus

Ekmarsf@aol.com wrote:
> 
> Certainly there is. It stops the cistus losing its shape as a shrub
> and getting leggy. I suspect it also promotes plant life [not more
> than 5 years anyway]. Prune after flowering, not quite back to last
> season's growth

I agreee that as with a lot of rather short-lived species, Cistus to
really look their best not only need pruning but quite frequent
replacement.

And while on the subject of pruning, it is always important it think, as
Edward has mentioned, with this type of plant never to cut too far back,
but always to leave some of the most recent growth. The ability to
sprout seems to be largely lost in wood older than one season and
perhaps this is why some people don't find pruning these bushes very
successful. Little and often rather than occasional and drastic is the
way to get the best from this technique. 

I grow very few Cistus, but have a small-growing one (sorry, name lost)
which has very neat pink flowers and of which I am very fond. Even with
judicious pruning it does not take it many years to become overgrown and
woody, so about every second or third year after the main flowering I
bend a couple of branhes to the gruond as layers and put a stone on top
of them. They root this way with the greatest ease and in a few months
can be detached and moved to a permanent site. 

I have often found layering is the answer to multiplying shrubby plants,
especially those sometimes temperamental about rooting by other means,
and use it extensively for instance for heaths and heathers and likewise
for thymes. I happen also to have one very nice small species Hebe
(H.pimelioides) which unlike most of its ilk is very reluctant to grow
from cuttngs, but easily yields really nice fresh plants when layered.
Most recently I have had great success with a very ancient shrubby
Potentilla, which I though I was about to lose, but which has yiieded
three young vigorous replacements as a result of  my layering.

Moira
-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan,
Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our garden at:-
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
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