I have a few mystery Japanese Maples that were seedlings from another friend's garden. They were about 4" tall when I brought them over and planted them.They were the cutest little babies - how could I not bring them home?!?
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| 2007 |
Like all things, they have grown with time. They are nearly 9 years old now and have grown quite a bit. I have mostly left them alone, only pruning out the squirrelly branches here and there to keep them looking nice and to keep them out of other plants.
Now they have grown up taller than the surrounding shrubs and are nearing the top of the fence.
This spring, I removed some of the bottom foliage to make them a bit more tree-like, but I think they need a little more guidance.
The green maples in particular really seem to be stretching out this year, sending long arching branches all over the place.
My intent was always that these maples would fill in under the limbed up walnut trees and perhaps take over as the shade eventually if I ever took the walnut trees out.
What do you think? What's the best course of action? I don't want to wreck them!
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| The three maples in the back corner 2014. (The wine is for "medicinal" purposes.) |
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| D'oh! Isn't it ironic? A fly in my Merlot. |
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| Spring 2014 - Back by the English walnut |
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| This one's getting pretty poofy |
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| Front corner under the black walnut |
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| This poor baby has had some setbacks. A disease turned the main trunk black and it died |
Get rid of the fly, pour yourself another glass of Merlot continue drinking until you don't really care about the maples. Vow to do something next year. Repeat annually. I like the way the poofy one is blocking the view of your neighbor's house.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you think! I did make the fly spit out what he'd drank and kept drinking my glass of medical Merlot. I do plan to leave the maple covering the view of the u-hual truck intact.
DeleteI had a green Japanese maple that sent out long shoots like that. When they got too heavy or it rained and the branches were weighed down, the deer would prune them back for me. Eventually the tree developed a decent branch structure, though I did guide it a bit. So you can prune those branches back to start developing the branching structure yourself. I could give you some deer to help out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the offer of deer - there are not too many deer in lovely Lents. A raccoon is about as exotic wildlife gets in my hood.
DeleteI love them right where they are. Perfect wine drinking viewing.
ReplyDeleteDebra