Climbing plant fell away from building

Mervyn Skidmore

Any way of getting this back on the wall? It was never maintained and honestly, I haven't a clue what to do with it. It is very heavy. Could I cut off some of the weight off it, don't want to kill it. My gardening skills and knowledge are pretty much zero.

lottpaul

Might help us if you gave a bit of information. Any idea why it fell? Was the plant clinging to the wall itself or tied/supported? How big is it? (the plant, not the wall )
Getting a plant back on a wall can be more about DIY skills than gardening, but some need a bit more care than others.

Edit: Just saw your pic. Thats a cotoneaster horizontalis. It won't cling to anything by itself and will need supporting - if you want to put it back. As the name suggests it's not really used as a climbing plant and is usually happier trailing along the ground or along a lowish wall. That said, it looks fine and healthy. You can cut it back without causing too much harm - most cotoneasters take pruning well. After that its a matter of choice whether you want to tie it back securely -- it will be heavy - or maybe let it grow along the ground instead. It's usually tough enough and if you like it just tie it back up and prune it to fit your space.

Mervyn Skidmore

I think it just fell due to the weight. It might have been tacked to the wall 10 years ago but it's pretty much been growing up against the wall since. It is probably about 15 feet high and 15 feet wide. I have a couple of pics up now. Only think I can think is to literally drill holes in the wall and secure to the wall with some sort of brackets.

standardg60

It just needs a bit of help, cotoneaster horizontalis is a fabulous wall covering plant, I have it on my boundary wall to eight feet with no support.
What you need to do is cut off any branches which are growing perpendicular to the wall right back to where they emanated from. It should then be easy enough to push it back against the wall, secure with a few hooks into the wall and stretch some wire between them.
Every year about the end of august trim the perpendicular growth again and it should be fine.

my3cents

I've put plenty of similar plants back on walls and sometimes it needs something really solid to hold them there.

I've used rawl bolt eyes something like these



you only need a couple for the main stem and can also use them with a rope through the eye to pull the plant back up.

Use smaller more conventional plant fixings for the smaller branches.

Mervyn Skidmore

standardg60 wrote: »

It just needs a bit of help, cotoneaster horizontalis is a fabulous wall covering plant, I have it on my boundary wall to eight feet with no support.
What you need to do is cut off any branches which are growing perpendicular to the wall right back to where they emanated from. It should then be easy enough to push it back against the wall, secure with a few hooks into the wall and stretch some wire between them.
Every year about the end of august trim the perpendicular growth again and it should be fine.

Thanks for that. When you say perpendicular from the wall, you mean those growing outwards from the wall right? Is it safe to lop those off at this time of year? Also, if I cut too much off in one go is there a chance I could kill the plant? Sorry for all the questions.

my3cents

You can't really damage the plant but you can really damage the shape of it if you don't give some thought as to how you prune it. I tend to try and cut out whole branches rather than chop the ends off and if I do have to shorten back some branches I'd always try and cut back to a point where the new growth will continue to provide a good shape to the plant but that is a bit of a learnt skill. I wouldn't however be removing much from the specimen in the picture. Maybe remove a couple of larger "floppy" branches and shorten a few back to reduce the weight and spread.

standardg60

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

Thanks for that. When you say perpendicular from the wall, you mean those growing outwards from the wall right? Is it safe to lop those off at this time of year? Also, if I cut too much off in one go is there a chance I could kill the plant? Sorry for all the questions.

Yes directly out from the wall. No you won't kill the plant, cotoneaster is very resilient. It will look a bit drastic to begin with but it will recover fine.
Affecting the shape of a plant doesn't really apply here as all you want to do is get it back tight to the wall. You have to be cruel to be kind sometimes:)

Harry Palmr

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

Any way of getting this back on the wall? It was never maintained and honestly, I haven't a clue what to do with it. It is very heavy. Could I cut off some of the weight off it, don't want to kill it. My gardening skills and knowledge are pretty much zero.

Much of that is so old I'd really take a loppers to it and cut the whole thing back to a couple of feet and train it back up with nice fresh wood.

uberwolf

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Much of that is so old I'd really take a loppers to it and cut the whole thing back to a couple of feet and train it back up with nice fresh wood.

I have this running along a wall (3ft height). How hard can I prune, and what time of the year do you think?

Harry Palmr

They are bomb proof, so you can prune it back without worrying you'll inhibit it's vigor. This can be cut at any time really but you might as well wait until the flowers and berries have expired unless you really are getting impatient with it! You can prune it back with some energy until you've got it into a size and shape you want - cut to the "junction" of a stem and branch - no point in cutting a branch near the tips as it'll sprout several more growths the following spring/summer and it's worth grubbing about underneath at the back and cutting/clearing gnarled dead wood.