Your glossy medlar is an eye-catcher. In order for it to remain so, a pruning is required. Pay attention to when and how to cut it.
Your evergreen photinia will delight you as a tree or hedge all year round and give you decorative white flowers in summer and berries in autumn. As a hedge, it offers you privacy protection.
The “Red Robin” variety in particular impresses with bright red leaves immediately after they sprout, which turn green over time. It takes about three years for the medlar to form a hedge. With a few tips, it stays healthy and grows densely.
Shape cutting instructions
The fruits of the medlar are poisonous to humans and some animals. Birds enjoy the berries carefree. If you have allergies, use gloves when trimming. Use sharp hedge or pruning shears for a precise cut, as an electric trimmer will also destroy healthy foliage and cause more damage to the plant through the cuts. Proceed as follows:
- Shorten all branches moderately at the fork from old to young shoots.
- Cut back overhanging branches and branches that are standing to one side.
- Don’t remove all of the flower spikes to allow fruit to form.
- Thin out your hedge in the middle, in a trapezoidal shape, so that the sunlight can also reach areas that are difficult to access.
- Remove dead areas.
- Discard any trimmings to prevent fungal attack as they rot.
- If the growth is strong, repeat the shortening of the shoots in August so that the cuts can heal before the frost penetrates.
If your photinia unexpectedly loses a lot of leaves, it is usually too damp. Then cut it back radically gradually over several years to allow it to recover.
The best time for pruning
Once planted, you will enjoy your photinia for a long time. It increases annually about fifty centimeters in height and twenty centimeters in width. To make it more resilient and bushy, prune it back in spring after flowering, ideally in June.
In the period from March to September, radical pruning is prohibited, as birds and insects find nesting sites in your hedge. A gentle shape and grooming cut is allowed. If you only have a shrub or a small tree, just thin it out and remove old wood.
If you cut back your medlar in winter, it will produce a lot of new shoots, but fewer buds the following year.
