anyone doing anything cool with Pyracantha?
1 Like
In Alpine Texas,our university,Sul Ross State University has stone walls along the front and west side that have pyracantha along its entirerty.
If I were to guess,it’s probably somewhere around 250-350 feet of pyracantha.
It has done extremely well for the last 30+ years and has been through 12 straight years of drought,abusive grounds keepers with 0 knowledge, never fertilized,never watered,and it just keeps trucking along.
It is hedged at 3 feet high and 2 feet deep.
Tough ornamentals and the bjrds love them.
Of course on the really dry years they look one inch from death but somehow pull through.
I was a grounds keeper there for a few years but had to leave because I just could not stand watching so many native plants being abused from stupidity.
If you are looking for something that is drought tolerant and heat tolerant,then this would be a great choice.
Drought and heat are the nail in the coffin out here in non-irrigated western Oregon. Ill add it to the “hedge species” section of my nursery.
1 Like
Scarlett firethorn is one of the few apple family species that reliably handle fire blight and the various other common diseases around here. That, callery pear, loquat, and Indian hawthorn. Most everything else tends towards being a disease magnet.
Just wish they were edible.
sounds like it has some rootsock potential?
I was just thinking about whether Pyracantha would be a good rootstock here in Oregon. Summers are getting brutal and I’m looking around at stuff on the property that thrives despite the worsening conditions. I have a couple pyras in a neglected spot that do fine with zero care. People successfully use cotoneaster as a rootstock for pears, so I think that would be a good place to start…
it truly is a tough one. If there ever was a “plant protective services”, i would have been in prison since in my teens. Of course never intended to kill any of my plants, its just that often end up getting sidetracked by this thing called life…
below almost succumbed to underwatering, but miraculously came back to life when finally watered it and seem to continue nursing fruits that it hasn’t dropped. Also an excellent live medium for sculpturals as the stems are bendy andfoliage grow tight (under full sun). Just be mindful of its wicked spines
was planning to use this as one of the legs for a giraffe topiary so i guess have to settle for a 3-legged one, lol
2 Likes