stringy escalonia

[Ian_5]

i put an escalonia in around 2 years ago and its fairly small (around 2 ft tall) but when i took a look today it's quite wirey - should i be pruning it regularly to give it structure and if so when it the year?

thanks for any advice...

[WendyC]

They can be hard pruned if they get out of hand. As you want to thicken yours up a bit you could prune about a third of the stems quite hard so they shoot again from lower down and perhaps just reduce the remaining stems a bit to encourage branching. Tough as old boots so you won't kill it! If I remember rightly they flower early in the year so flower on last years wood so if you want to keep the flowers prune after flowering.

[Ian_5]

Thanks Wendy, reassuring to know i wont kill it... i'll invariably give it my best shot!