This mugo is in front of the breakfast room. When the heavy rain comes, it nearly flops over to the ground. I don't want it too large.
Can I chop off the tops or will I damage it?
This mugo is in front of the breakfast room. When the heavy rain comes, it nearly flops over to the ground. I don't want it too large.
Can I chop off the tops or will I damage it?
Chop from the bottom, not the top. Take whole branches, not just tips of branches.
"To bosom friend, to gracious host
To those who fall, and those who lift
To those who give, yet mark not gift
To healing, hope, and circumstance
To faith, to fate, to meetings chance"
-Bob Kublin (who I have not met)
I did chop some from the bottom on the backside. I made an awful mess.
Will try to get pics of the damage later.
I wasn't clear in my post. I want to reduce the height.
Here are two pics of the backside I cut. I made a mess but I had to have access to the hose spigot.
Someone advised me in a pm today about cutting the candles in half next spring. I think I had some info about that at one time but lost it after a reinstall.
I just don't want it as high as the bottom of the window. Guess I had better leave it alone before I do any further damage. Hubby may attack it with the hedge shears but that won't be my fault.
My pruning techniques leave a lot to be desired. And to think I was comtemplating trimming my japanese maple....oye.
Koimum, even though I am a professional landscape designer, I often break the rules set by other like me.
Lots of people just like to go by the book, never deviating from the norm or trying something different.
Anyway, If that were MY Mugho Pine, I would trim it off to the exact size I wanted it to be. That is what I do with almost all of my plants (shrubs, trees, perennials, etc).
I agree, trimming from the base will result in nothing but deadwood. Many evergreens refuse to recover from such abuse.
By the way, I do not use shears except if I am trimming a privet hedge or some of my hedge-like hollies. With a pine such as yours, I use clippers and clip each branch individually: roughly to the desired length...making each cut a little different in height, to get a 'natural' look, not sheared.
Cutting candles in half in spring is how I do a lot of my white pines....basically cuz it makes them branch out BIG TIME all around the mid cuts. It probably would have the same effect on your MP. As long as that is the effect you want, then go ahead and try it.
...Joyce
www.peacefulponds.org
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It will never fail you.”
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I like your style Jewel, but the pine, that's a different story. Koimum, you would get fired at New York's Botanical Garden, but you did the best you could.
Originally Posted by kingkong
KK...just be glad I didn't trim the ones in the front yard yet.
No wonder they turned me down for employment at Bellagio's conservatory.
Joyce, I think I will get the clippers out. I now have hope.