Need some help pruning Photinia Red Robin, please

[FeistiFi]

Hi,

My mum and I have planted 70 Photinia Red Robin plants, 1m apart.

The plants are approximately a year old and look as follows:

Photinia - Google Drive

drive.google.com

We have trimmed the height of the trees once, but don't really know what we're doing.

My mum's goal is to create a thick hedge to block out the neighbours.

She believes there is some special way of pruning the hedge so that it thickens and closes up (problem is we don't know what that special way is).

Could anyone please offer some advice on how/when we should trim the sides of the trees and also the height?

Thank you.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I have a feeling that the 'special' way of pruning your mum has heard of is 'layering', though I have never heard of or seen it applied to red robin. It is done a fair bit around here, the stems of things like beech or hawthorn are cut half through and bent down to the horizontal, causing new vertical shoots to come all along them. I really don't think this is what you want. Red robin grows like mad, the more you prune it the faster it grows, and the new growth is the attractive red. About the only thing that goes wrong with it is fungal infection sometimes, so prune to allow air to circulate through the plants , and remove all the clippings, dead leaves, etc.

I only had one plant in my last garden, the problem was keeping it back. The missus loved the red shoots for floral displays, but it produced far more than she could use and would have gone mad if allowed to, I am told they can make 30 feet, so keep cutting, twice a year, spring and autumn.

 

[oneeye]

Red tip Photinias are fast-growing shrubs that should give you the cover you want. The first few years top the plants only one time in the Winter. Leave the side branches alone so they will catch up with the top branches. If you top red tips too much you will cause the shrubs stress and the plants can get a fungus. .