Renewal pruning Pyracantha

Some plants can become too big for their allotted space and need either drastic pruning or removal. there is always an element of risk with hard pruning, some otherwise healthy looking plants do not survive the trauma and others grow away with a new lease of life. Most vigorous shrubs like Pyracantha seem to survive drastic pruning. If you are worried out killing your plant, shorten back half the stems, if these grow back after pruning, do the rest the following year. 

The best time to do drastic (renewal) pruning is in spring as this will give a full growing season for the new wood to 'ripen' before the onset of winter. This will avoid frost damage to new shoots. I suggest applying a Potassium-rich fertiliser in mid summer to assist with ripening the wood.

The picture below shows new shoots developing from a Pyracantha that I hard pruned a month ago. The plant will have a new lease of life and its neighbours will no longer suffer from competition with this vigorous plant.