Pruning For Spring Blooms

Occasionally, Studio Wildwood branches out beyond pruning Japanese Maples.

Four weeks ago, the challenge was two crabapple trees.  Like flowering cherries and plums, these trees can send out loooong young shoots.  These branches can quickly make the tree look very congested.  This can look odd, at best, after the cloak of flowers falls to the ground.

We cut about 50% of the branches off the crabapples in the picture.  That sounds like a lot, and it is, but the improvement is more subtle.  The trees still have a mass of flowers only with slightly more depth.  Now, sunlight can illuminate all the flowers!