Pyracantha – No Berries

Q: Why doesn’t my pyracantha have ONE berry on it this year, when it was loaded last year? It is about three years old. I’ve tried to make it circle around my light pole outside and so have trimmed it a little, and bent the “branches” . Everywhere else I see pyracanthas LOADED with berries this year.

A: One possible cause is that you might have pruned it last winter. Pyracantha blooms in April-May on twigs that grew the previous year. If you removed most of those twigs before blooming as you trained the plant around your light pole, flowers (and fruit) were eliminated for this year. You can still train the plant as you like – just wait until after it blooms next spring to remove any wayward branches.