The big Winter cut back is continuing and it is all go here. Whilst Cruella (my wife) was away I avoided the more dangerous stuff on account of the fact that the local hospital is low on my blood type. So mainly this has just been the big hedges and some Palms. But now Cruella is back from England (flew the usual way knees bent, leaning forward and holding on tight to the broomstick) I will be tackling the big Bay tree in my next post. Anyway, that excitement is for next time, let’s get going those Palms don’t cut themselves.
19th January: Things I have been doing lately
✂️ Cutting the big hedges. Along the front of our house we have planted a wide variety of hedging plants. These include Bignonia, Bougainvillea, Plumbago, standard Roses, Pink Trumpet Vine, Hibiscus, Lantana, Callestimon and a self seeded Pomegranate. I encourage all of these to grow in a riot of colour as they try to out compete each other for light and space. This means by the end of the summer I have a huge hedge that is massively overgrown and entangled. The photos below show parts of the hedge ready for cutting back. (Click on each photo for enlarged picture).
Now you can be pernickety about this and trim each plant individually, but this means you will still be doing it in June. Or, you can trim the sides uninformly then cut back all the tops to the same height. By doing this you create the illusion of a single hedge as opposed to individual plants. The only exception to this is the self seeded Pomegranate. As this fruits on old wood I leave it a little bit higher than the overall hedge to encourage more Pomegranate fruit. The picture below shows the trimmed hedge waiting to burst into glory in the Spring. (Click on each photo for enlarged picture).
🌴 Cutting back Palms. If you live in Spain you should know how to cut back Palms. But just to reiterate, try to keep your Palm fronds growing at a 45 degree angle. When they start to drop below this each branch will get very woody and become much harder to cut; you have been warned. The photos below show a section of my Palms ready to be cut back. (Click on each photo for enlarged picture).
You will note that the common denominator in each of these Palms is they are relatively reachable. Once you extend the ladder beyond one section you are in dangerous territory and more than likely in your local hospital casualty ward. The photo below shows some of my large Palms; these are over 40 foot high so definitely not to be tackled by the amateur but left to a professional Palmista.
I have been left clinging on to the trunks in the past
The photos below show the newly trimmed Palms. If you can’t see the difference then I’m not speaking to you, it took ages. (Click on each photo for enlarged picture).
Spanish Garden 
Hi Tony, you professionals are so purist. If I trimmed each plant individually I would still be there at Easter as there is almost 200 yards of hedge- forgive me.
Yes the trunk in the photo is a Palm destroyed by the Palm Weevil that I cut down to about 10 feet then covered with wire mesh and have been growing Pink Trumpet Vine etc up it for about 5 years, it looks stunning in Summer.
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Oh my! You actually wrote about shearing it all together?!? That is one my pet peeves! Well, at least you are not a professional doing it at the home of a client.
What is that palm stump thing in the second picture? Is it the trunk of a palm that was cut down? Oh my!
At least you have desert fan palms, Washingtonia filifera. They are native to Southern California, and are the only palm that is native to California. They are what Palm Spring and all the desert towns with ‘palm’ in their names are named after. They are my favorite, but unfortunately do not do well here.
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