I wonder if you guys can help me,sorry it's that age old pruning advice question. Now I admit I've never been one to prune to encourage growth.I tend to just remove damaged or unwanted branches and pretty much leave it at that.Consequently many of my maples now lack vigour.My Shin deshojo is a good example,whilst I love it as it's getting a reasonable size,all the lovely foliage is born on rather twiggy growth and hence it doesn't really grow much. I realise if you have strong growth,the new stem will probably have leaves along it's length and if you cut back to a pair of leaf nodes around budding time,you will again get strong growth from this point. 1st question is,is there another time of year to produce same results? Getting back to Shin deshojo&others,the thicker branches have no leaves or buds,just the twiggy branches bares the foliage.Should I shorten the twiggy stuff to a pair of leaves(which I'm not sure will produce much more growth)or cut back the larger leafless branches removing all the twiggy stuff and foliage?Will these branches produce new buds reliably?I assume it would need to be done in stages?What I'm afraid of is ending up with a tree with lots of thick stumps and no foliage. I guess I should have been doing this regularly but have always been reluctant to remove all that lovely colour. Many thanks :)
I've occasionally trimmed right back to the main trunks, done this in winter when I'm not happy with the overall shape and want to start again. They always come back with great vigour from dormant buds. An Aratma had this treatment last year and you'd never know now and the overall appearance of the plant now is greatly enhanced from what it was before. A Red Pygmy I have was taken right back to its single trunk this winter, there was a main branch I had to remove due to disease and the shape was ruined so decided to start again. This plant is a few years old and had lost its vigour, however now it's putting on great growth from dormant buds and will look much better than before. John
Thanks for the reply and encouraging advice John.I notice you did all of yours in winter so assume this is the best time.I will give it a go this year then. Looks like we've gotta batten down the hatches again,more damn hi winds coming tomorrow night into tuesday :(
Yes, it doesn't look good. We keep getting battered this year, actually had a couple of recently planted maples uprooted last time, replanted and staked now, but never had this problem before. Mind you the rain has helped with not having to water so much.
Houzi..Just go for it,get the secaturs out and cut away i do this every year with out fail on numerous trees and every time they come back stronger better and more colourfull. Last year (October) i cut back heavily on an Oregon sunset see picture then dug it up as well three weeks later and replaced it only ten foot away from where it was before,and this is the same tree today,amazing growth and this will be cut back again in the fall to create a more softer rounder appearence to it's overall look, so it's had two major stress factors thrown at it in less than one month, but it's still here and far better than i have seen it over the years. You will be supprised how much you can do to them and they just keep bouncing back. My initial thoughts on pruning were I suppose will i cause ireverseable damage to my trees which in turn would be my fault,but when you stop and think we do this every year to all the other varieties of plants we have in the garden roses,clematis,camelias etc etc, so why should we have a different mind set when it comes to our JM. The first heavy cuts are the worst and you will think 'omg' what have i just done but i feel sure you will like the 'new tree' that will come back to you. P.S You are right regards the weather first day of summer it's like the Arctic in the north at present, and don't get me started on the winds three weeks we have had nothing but strong winds nearly every day, and as i write this blog i am watching out of the window the forecasted severe storm warnings starting to pick up in strength. Have been out this morning moving trees again!! to safer and more sheltered spots,also putting extra stakes in various pots hey ho!!
Ok,watch out trees,the axeman cometh ha ha.....May I ask,why do you prune in fall? is that so not to promote regrowth and keep the shape you pruned to? Ok won't mention the wind(oops too late)makes me laugh,they say'unseasonably hi winds'...well yes it used to be!
, Houzi..Basically i tend to prune in the fall, for the only reason is that i like to cut everybody on the same day, no other reason what so ever, yes i do realise that some may cut in the summer but i just like the fall months to do my cutting i tend to see a better picture of the tree when the leaves are off. I look at them all year take hundreds of pictures and use these as a reference,the ones i tend to cut the most are: Sango Kaku,Orange dream,Ashai zuru,Seiryru,Oregon Sunset and Osakazuki the later you could use a chain saw on this and it will still come back!! Pic of my Orange dream this was growing in all directions this time last year and looked awful plus it was in the wrong spot terrible sun scorching and no colouration in the fall very drab.Cut out four main leader branches it just looked like a giant starfish then lifted a few weeks later and placed in a 60ltr container,and it then gave some lovely fall colours which iv'e never seen before.So this spring it gave some lovely orange colours and hopefully it will produce some cracking colours again this fall,have dozens of pics to go back to and when the leaves drop this will be trimmed again,the amount of new dense leaf it's put on this year is tremendous. Mind you i am supprised i have any trees left standing at the moment with the wind we had yesterday and today,how they are still upright is a mystery,couldn't stand to look out of the lounge window last night it was that bad!! Checked them all today and just one 14" branch of my large Seiryu blown off, and plenty of leaves every where else, good old British weather!!!
♩ Summer summer summer time ♫ Ok,I understand.I used to do what little pruning I did in fall but now I just won't touch the trees when dormant or just before.I really do suffer a lot with bacterial attacks,seen the infections starting from pruning points and also when I haven't pruned them.I blame it on the failure to reach freezing point most winters these days with temps much above that for most of winter. Interesting you say your fall colours improved with reduced sun,I thought sun was needed to get the best but obviousy scorched leaves ain't gonna do so well.Strangely it took about 4years to get colour from one of my Osakazukis(still waiting for the other)but boy was it worth the wait...pics looked photoshopped :) yet that's now fairly shaded so I don't know which is best.I haven't seen so much colouration on my OD since it's now shaded heavily....infact never see the 'Orange Dream' now either ha ha but it does glow bright green all year.Your one has certainly filled in nicely Roebuk,a veritable globe of foliage now,should look stunning this fall. Glad you didn't sustain too much damage,I heard you bore the brunt of the weather system,I just had a couple toppled in their gritty mix,need to add more gravel next time give it more body if I choose to continue with it...we'll see.
Houzi..What i found last year was that quite a few of my trees especially variagated dissectums were very sparse in good colouration on the vast area of the trees,i tended to have just splotchy areas where you could see nice colours but then the rest of the tree was one solid colour with no variagation. So i lifted my large Toyama nishiki into a 40ltr container and placed in the corner of the garden which only gets the last dying rays of sun in the evening and the colour change from last year is amazing,already starting to see more reds in the leaf and more prominent white flashes, i can actually see a change in the colours each day. My Beni shidare tri colour is really showing excellent colour change as well this gets sun from 4pm onwards really pretty at the moment good variagation showing. Lifted others which had been in the ground for a while but were just not showing the good autumn colours which they are renowned for good spring and summer leaf but poor fall colours, 4th pic Karibo stunning dark plum colours at present, then Mirte just changing from it's chocolate leaves into it's summer greens then hopefully will go a vivid orange in the fall, as will the Karibo both in larger containers but well protected from the sun by other ground grown trees. And lastly the O/D from last October only out of the ground for just over 4 months but in it's present shady spot, really hoping it's going to be the same again,this is the first time i have seen this go the colour it's supposed to!! so needs to be in the shade past 7 years in the wrong spot my fault!! What iv'e found over the years is you have constantly have to move your trees until you find the happy spot where they will give you all the seasonal changes that they are known for, i don't want two nice colours during the year and one rubbish fall colour i want to see all the three changes that it say's in the numerous books out there, then i know iv'e the done the right job in planting trimming feeding etc. Already have two large viridis ear marked for lifting in the fall into large containers,last pic is of one that had been in the same spot since planted out in 2007 lifted last fall again into a 60ltr container and the new vigour this year is stunning so much more dense growth,and hopefully i should get some nice golden red leaf this fall.Anyways that's my take on giving JM shade i am certainly seeing changes, well i will just go do my nightly round in the garden now it's stopped raining but still blowing :(
Super pics. Roebuk,thanks.Well that's a bit of an eye opener for me.I remember someone posting a link to an experiment where they masked off portions of leaves in fall resulting in exposed parts bearing the fall colours.Apart from the few in-ground maples I have,most of the others now shade eachother so it will be intersting to see the results.I must admit I rarely get more than 3or4 good ones as they all lose their leaves before colouring up...usually those damn winds again. I think you're onto something,I've tried keeping certain plants in sun to gain growth but it doesn't seem to make much difference(well we're not in Oregon)...and they probably get more stressed even if they don't show it so I'll let them relax now with more shade.I know more sun means more photosynthesis but if I was a tree,I wouldn't extend my fingers if they're gonna get burnt. Well hopefuly by tomorrow we'll see quite a contrast in the weather..breathe a big sigh of relief :)
A few more pics of trees first two of my Sharps pygmy had this for years,bought this and planted out in 2007 when it was a 5ltr plant, its been in the same spot ever since, plenty of sun all day it's grown nicely but never ever turned to it's scarlet fall colour which it's supposed to, just usually stays the drab yellow/amber colour seen in the 1st pic and this was mid Nov last year. So after the leaves dropped up it came and into a 40ltr container and it's now placed in a shadier area of the garden to see if i can get it to turn red in the fall? lovely healthy tree at the moment time will tell. Finally the last pic two Autumn moons bought on the same day from the same nursery a few years ago,no prizes to which was kept in the shade and which was in full sun all day. Can honestly say that this year my trees are showing some of the best colours i have seen for many a year and i put this all down to positioning. Houzi as you state we are not in Oregon where i suppose alot of information was taken from, with regards certain cultivars and how they perform in that continent? so we now have to try and replicate conditions to find the optimum growing conditions in our zones/climates so we can see what they acheived. I think our weather is certainly playing a major contribution this year very poor sunlight so far. Still have a sneaky cold wind today,but it's supposed to brighten up during the later half of the week.
Well not much of a pygmy now is it?....geesh that's put on some weight already this year,amazing. Don't know what it is about Oregon,never been there.They obviously get a lot more sun but most places do...it's the size of the plants that gets me,Buchholz's Mikawas even make Charlie's look diminutive. Not gonna experiment with my Autumn Moon yet,just letting it regain it's feet as it's always had issues since I got it.However I seem to manage to get Aureum to do a fair impression of it in sun though it probably doesn't like it ha. Apart from the severe weather days we've done OK for sun so far.Think we'll all have a nice day tomorrow :) Ha ha,just realised,I bet the other guys here are thinking 'it's true,the English are always moaning about the weather'
Me personally all my young grafts come from Hippopottering in Lincolnshire and any hard to find plants or good ground grown trees come from Packhorse farm Nursery in Derbyshire. Dealt with both these nurseries for years,excellent quality stock from both at reasonable prices.
For me, locally it's Barthélemy maples, okay not that local, but nearest specialist, used them over 20 years, good for 1 year grafts, although the way up to specimens and extensive range of cultivars (their catalogue doesn't list all that they carry). Further afield I like Chris Pattison nursery. One day I will get up to Packhorse, looks to be a great maple specialist and I know Roebuk highly recommends them. John
Sam see some pics taken today at Packhorse farm nursery,first three are some of his poly tunnels and the fourth is a large covered holding area,which goes further down the back which you can't see. And finally his growing fields must be well over a thousand trees planted out all over the place,you think you have seen the lot then you come accross another area to look at. He also has a large planted out area with really well established trees, more of a huge display area than anything else, beautiful spot. It's the only nursery i have been to where you can just walk round and pick a well mature tree,just say can you dig this up for next year!! no problem the variety is amazing, i was trying to name them as i went round gave up after 30 mins ,well worth a trip out and today was just beautiful the warmest day of the year nearly 20 degrees. Ok people in the US don't laugh but this is hot!!!!! for us in the UK, back to normal for the weekend heavy rain and thunder storms,sounds about right for us. Picked up another Hogyoku,Palmatifidum,and two new ones Sekka Yatsubusa and a Kogane nishiki which is very pretty, gone for Orange,yellow and gold fall colours to try and break the reds up a bit.
That's quite a facility! Really great that they're planting outside. For trees that are intended to be planted out in the landscape, I can't over emphasise the importance of having plants that are acclimatised outside of the greenhouse. It's not as easy, or as fast, as tunnel growing, but it sure is worth it for the consumer.
Sam also if you get bored just looking at rows and rows of maples you can have a stroll around his mature tree area,with some outstanding fully mature Acers plus an excellent variety of conifers and numerous broad leafed trees and weepers etc. According to Hilton this area has been neglected some what over the years, really!! For me to see something similar to this i would have to go to RHS Harlow Carr gardens outside of Harrogate, although H/C is much much larger in size there is more of a interest in Packhorse for me because of the much larger array of mature J/M etc which obviously i have more of desire to see,especially if i want to reference what older trees will look like in years to come,much nicer to see them in the flesh (so to speak) than in books. You really get a feel for the trees and hope yours can reach the same level of beauty, although we might have to prune heavy to keep the sizes manageable:) in our little gardens. Oh just to have a nice quiet secluded spot some where with a few more acres of land, the things we could acheive Hey ho!!
Certainly able to give them much more space there than I have been able to give mine. I think, though, that I am sort of glad that I don't live close to Packhorse ... there might be a few rows with the Bank manager LOL
