I live in Michigan and recently bought property with many flowering trees,some being crabapple trees. I trimmed them last year taking off mainly branches going straight up, which I read should be done. However, the trees this year look scraggly, uneven and maybe too tall. Some are not full throughout but have branches going off branches every which way up on the top. Should I cut the tops of the trees off so they are all about the same height? How do I get them to fill out in the middle? They run all the way up the driveway so I want them to look nice. I dont think the previous owners did much with maintaining them. Please Help:)
Sounds like they are already being over-pruned, I would certainly not do a bunch of additional heavy cutting. Topping them to look like hat racks or other caricatures, although popular is not an improvement at all - quite the opposite. Think of the flowering crabapple tree as a big bouquet, a large, solid bunch of bloom being the objective rather than a stylized and sparse branching. Crossing, irregularity and density are normal for many kinds. If you are getting a profuse and spectacular flowering they are doing what they are supposed to. If they are producing forests of vertical sprouts they have been pruned incorrectly. Mature flowering crabapples should not be getting a lot of pruning. Just a little fine tuning here and there, not necessarily every year.
