How to Plant and Care for Pyracanthas

Pyracanthas are large shrubs that offer sweetly fragrant, flat, white flower clusters in spring and early summer. Also known as Firethorns, Pyracanthas are laden with small, fiery red, orange or gold berries from late summer to winter. These dense shrubs retain their deep green leaves in winter, making them a visual delight throughout the year. For color and beauty all season long, consider planting Pyracnathas.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Shovel Compost Water Pine needles

How to Use Pyracanthas

1. Select an area for planting. Pyracanthas are best planted where the beauty of their berries can be appreciated, and where they will not snag passing traffic with their plentiful thorns. Pick a location where you can enjoy the sight of birds feasting on the berries.

2. Consider unusual places. Pyracanthas are happy to grow at extreme angles. Cover an unused slope with the low-growing "Ruby Mound," featuring attractive, arching stems. Trained against a wall, Pyracanthas are very showy and can even be trained to formal shapes, such as fans.

3. Plant Pyracanthas in a row to create an informal hedge. Plant allowing at least 5 feet between the centers of each shrub.

4. Bring Pyracanthas inside. Prune off a few overly long Pyracantha stems in fall. Place them in a vase to enjoy berries indoors for several weeks.

5. Partner Pyracantha with colorful friends. Pyracantha's vibrant berries make wonderful companions for blooms in similar hot shades, or for plants in cooler, subdued hues. Gold, red and orange annuals match the fiery hues of this shrub's berries. Plant a crowd of neon orange Marigolds around the gold-berried "Golden Charmer."

How to Plant Pyracanthas

6. Dig a hole twice as large as the shrub's container. Mix soil from hole with compost. Place one-third of amended soil back in hole.

7. Carefully remove the Pyracantha from its container. Soundly rap on the pot's bottom to remove and release the rootball.

8. Place plant in hole so that the main stem's base is slightly above ground level. Fill with remaining soil mix and firm with your hands.

9. Water new planting, but never over-water. Apply pine needles as mulch. Improve drainage by adding more compost if the liquid does not drain in 30 minutes.

10. Prune dead wood in spring, and again in summer.