I love my rockrose, but . . .

An overgrown rockrose . . . . .how do I manage it?
don't know enough about woody perennials to know if I can just whack it back near the crown, or if this will kill it.
I have three plants that have been neglected for years and now they are huge and rangy, with green growth only at their tips, far from the wood mass that makes up most of the plant.
Would appreciate any guidance on this, thanks!

This message was edited Dec 15, 2007 8:10 PM

I think Cistus is one of those shrubs that's not supposed to need a ton of pruning, and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that you definitely should not prune it hard as you're suggesting. Unfortunately with things that you can't prune back hard sometimes that makes it very hard to get them back into nice shape after they've been neglected. If they're in such bad shape that it's either prune them or pull them out, you might try cutting back 1/3 of the branches, then if you get some new growth on those next year cut back another 1/3, then 1/3 the following year and see if that works or not. I don't have any experience dealing with overgrown Cistus though, so if someone comes along who has then I would trust them over me!

Afraid Ecrane is right, you cant prune these shrubs as they dont recover, the only time you could very lightly cut some straggly stems back is, when the shrubs are very young and this encourages new bushy growth, if they are very dear to you, perhaps you could take a few cuttings from them and start off some new shrubs, other than that, as Ecrane suggested remove the shrubs all together and buy new plants, there are some shrubs that dont like being pruned too hard into the old wood of the stems, like Lavenders etc, but then even they can only take a light prune soon as flowers fade. wish I could be more positive for you, but hope you can take some cuttings from them if you enjoy them, Good luck. WeeNel.

thanks for the thoughts! when do you think would be the best time to take cuttings?

In your zone I am not too sure, maybe Ecrane could help you better, but either spring time or late summer when you have some nice new soft woody growth will be best as the cuttings will take better, if you have some new growing tips now, then give it a try, what have you got to loose, make sue the cuttings are from flowerless shoots as you dont want the cuttings to weaken by still holding onto flowering shoots, any bits about 6 to 8 inches will be fine, instead of cutting the bits off, try to pull them away (down words from the stems so that you have a tiny little bit of the old stem attached to the cuttings) this bit of old stem is called a heel cutting, then trim this bit of heel off where it was attached using a razor or sharp knife and dip it in some rooting gel/powder and insert the cuttings around the outside of the pot, you will get 4/6 cuttings in a six inch pot, water the cuttings and just keep an eye on them till you feel roots develop (give a very gentle tug at the cutting) and if they have rooted, they will resist being tugged at, if they move very easy, they have no roots yet, good luck. hope this helps. WeeNel.