At long last Winter has loosened its grip on us for a bit. While I am not totally comfortable with going from 20 degrees below normal to 20 degrees above normal, it surely does feel good. But it always causes some concern about the plants. Too much of this warm weather and they think it’s time to restart the system. Before you know it, flower buds are swelling – or worse yet – vegetative growth begins.
Then nature says, “Oops. It’s still winter. Sorry about that heat wave. Here’s some 10 degree weather to rebalance everything.” The plants and I both are screaming, “NOOOOO! Too late. Spring launch sequence has been activated. Cannot abort mission. Repeat. Cannot abort mission. Catastrophic damage at this point. It’s too late. It’s too late!”
But you roll with it. As do the plants.In the meantime, it sure is nice out. This is the kind of weather that makes you want to get outside and get back to real horticulture work. That is to say, physical labor. So this week we pruned on the dawn redwoods (Metasequoia glyptostrobioides) around Sutphin Fountain, the paperbark maples (Acer griseum) on the tunnel, and the red maples (Acer rubrum) on Sutphin Mall.
The dawn redwoods really just needed limbing up to get branches out of visitors’ faces when they stroll around the fountain. Essentially we removed some lower branches. The overall structure or skeleton of these trees is fine. The paperbark maples didn’t need too much work either. Some branch removal to improve structure was about it. The red maples on the mall required the most work. This is their third pruning counting the one that was done before they were dug and then brought here. Of course we removed low hanging branches again so they were not in people’s faces. But we also got up in the trees to remove dead wood, crossed branches, and any branches that interfered with healthy growth and good structure. For instance, if two branches coming from the main truck were stacked one above the other, only a few inches apart, we usually removed one. The same could be true of branches side by side. You want the branch structure to be balanced, if possible. A limb on one side of the tree has a partner on the other side, not always exactly opposite but near if possible. Some trees were developing a second leader also. The leader is the highest growing point on the tree and you want a tree to have one as a rule. A second leader is usually growing at a very tight angle from the trunk along side the main leader. These angles are generally weaker and can cause the tree to split from storm forces or with age. And frankly, the tree just looks better with a single leader. The secondary leaders can be removed at the main trunk or be cut back part way to allow the leader to remain in its position.
Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture
