dig up Cotoneaster -too shrubby!

seefin

Inherited what I think is a Cotoneaster. The garden is tiny and it takes up way too much space in border-its like a hedge and nothing grows underneath.
Last month I had a brainwave and cut back most of the branches leaving a tree like shape which I'm happy about.apart from doing this every year, or totally taking the shrub out, any ideas? The branches I cut back are coming from soil so likely were suckers? Can these be killed off leaving the original main.trunk?

looksee

Suckers usually suggests something that is not like the main plant - growing from a root stock for example. Cotoneaster will grow new stems, shoots, branches etc that are all part of the main plant.

I grew a cotoneaster as a standard shrub (just to see if I could!) and it worked pretty well, once the stem was cleared of shoots it tended to stay just as a 'trunk', but it was a less vigorous contoneaster than the one you have. I think that you will have to cut off suckers and rub off shoots in order to keep the shrub under control, they can be very vigorous plants.

seefin

looksee wrote: »

Suckers usually suggests something that is not like the main plant - growing from a root stock for example. Cotoneaster will grow new stems, shoots, branches etc that are all part of the main plant.

I grew a cotoneaster as a standard shrub (just to see if I could!) and it worked pretty well, once the stem was cleared of shoots it tended to stay just as a 'trunk', but it was a less vigorous contoneaster than the one you have. I think that you will have to cut off suckers and rub off shoots in order to keep the shrub under control, they can be very vigorous plants.

em what do you mean by rub off shoots? ( I'm a very novice gardener in case you haven't guessed)

looksee

Its a very general kind of expression meaning that when you see a small bud coming on the side of the main stem that you want to remain bare, if you push it with your thumb it will just 'rub off'.