Looking for advice on the best way to reduce the height of these without murdering them. I’ve been cutting back dead, thin, and touching branches but they are getting tall anc I want to make them shorter.
You can cut up to 1/3 off the top and it will bounce back in the spring
impropergentleman
They are trees they’re going to get tall. Instead of constantly hacking on them you may look at replacing them with a more appropriate specimen that meet your size requirements. The first comment I saw was remove the top third which would be topping. Or has known as murdering. They have dwarf varieties that may be more appropriate. Or let them be the tree that nature and timber.
Tom_Marvolo_Tomato
I have never understood people’s paranoia of having tall plants in their yard…at least, when the plant is properly spaced away from structures and utility lines. As this one appears to be.
Every species…every variety within a species…has a natural height and width that they are genetically programmed to reach. You cannot easily and successfully fight genetics.
If you cut this back, you’ll ruin it. Instead of having 8 or 9 branches reaching 15 feet tall, you’ll have 50 or 60 branches reaching 14 feet tall, as each cut you make sprouts 5 to 10 suckers. Google “crepe murder.”
If you truly cannot abide a 15 foot fall tall plant in this spot, dig it out and replant it with a dwarf variety of whatever else you want.
3 Comments
You can cut up to 1/3 off the top and it will bounce back in the spring
They are trees they’re going to get tall. Instead of constantly hacking on them you may look at replacing them with a more appropriate specimen that meet your size requirements. The first comment I saw was remove the top third which would be topping. Or has known as murdering. They have dwarf varieties that may be more appropriate. Or let them be the tree that nature and timber.
I have never understood people’s paranoia of having tall plants in their yard…at least, when the plant is properly spaced away from structures and utility lines. As this one appears to be.
Every species…every variety within a species…has a natural height and width that they are genetically programmed to reach. You cannot easily and successfully fight genetics.
If you cut this back, you’ll ruin it. Instead of having 8 or 9 branches reaching 15 feet tall, you’ll have 50 or 60 branches reaching 14 feet tall, as each cut you make sprouts 5 to 10 suckers. Google “crepe murder.”
If you truly cannot abide a 15 foot fall tall plant in this spot, dig it out and replant it with a dwarf variety of whatever else you want.