Woodbloke
Sequoia
Without doubt, my favourite tree, but as Rog S is tearing his hair out :lol: a new thread as requested, but when to prune them? Opinions differ, but this from the RHS:
Acers are very prone to bleeding from pruning cuts so it's best to do this before the end of January while they are totally dormant. In the second winter prune out any dead or damaged shoots and shorten the main shoots back a little. In the third winter remove any very low branches to display the bark on the trunk.
...and again:
RHS advice on pruning Japanese acers: Acer palmatum is best pruned when fully dormant (November to early February), as maples bleed sap from pruning cuts at other times, weakening the tree.
...and this is what I do for heavy structural pruning where the form of branches can be easily seen, but:
Can I prune an Acer in April?
To do this, you can carefully prune out growing tips in April to keep them compact. Later in June, gently remove the lengths of new growth that look excessive or untidy using a sharp pair of secateurs. Doing this will get the acer in shape ready for summer, looking pleasing and with plenty of new growth to be enjoyed.
This one near the pond:
...is now in full leaf and I'll trim out the growing tips to a single pair of leaves later on this month; I may even have a little snip at it more than once and I've been doing this to it for twenty years. It was quite heavily pruned for structural shape in Nov but because of the leaf canopy, it's impossible to do it now. This is one at the bottom of the garden:
...that was very heavily pruned in Nov; you can see half way up there was a major branch that was crossing and rubbing which was removed and the wound sealed with some green jollop from the local gc. There still a little more to do this coming autumn but the shape is now quite pleasing, whereas before it was a bit of a dogs dinner. Again, it will be lightly pruned as we go through the summer, but nothing drastic. One or two members of the JGS lightly shape their acers all through the summer but nothing too severe; the big loppers come out to play in Nov.
Many years ago, when I used to keep a lot of acer bonsai, a national 'expert' who gave our club a talk one evening said that you can be absolutely ruthless when pruning them and it seems you can with the full size tree, provided it's done at the appropriate time- Rob
Acers are very prone to bleeding from pruning cuts so it's best to do this before the end of January while they are totally dormant. In the second winter prune out any dead or damaged shoots and shorten the main shoots back a little. In the third winter remove any very low branches to display the bark on the trunk.
...and again:
RHS advice on pruning Japanese acers: Acer palmatum is best pruned when fully dormant (November to early February), as maples bleed sap from pruning cuts at other times, weakening the tree.
...and this is what I do for heavy structural pruning where the form of branches can be easily seen, but:
Can I prune an Acer in April?
To do this, you can carefully prune out growing tips in April to keep them compact. Later in June, gently remove the lengths of new growth that look excessive or untidy using a sharp pair of secateurs. Doing this will get the acer in shape ready for summer, looking pleasing and with plenty of new growth to be enjoyed.
This one near the pond:
...is now in full leaf and I'll trim out the growing tips to a single pair of leaves later on this month; I may even have a little snip at it more than once and I've been doing this to it for twenty years. It was quite heavily pruned for structural shape in Nov but because of the leaf canopy, it's impossible to do it now. This is one at the bottom of the garden:
...that was very heavily pruned in Nov; you can see half way up there was a major branch that was crossing and rubbing which was removed and the wound sealed with some green jollop from the local gc. There still a little more to do this coming autumn but the shape is now quite pleasing, whereas before it was a bit of a dogs dinner. Again, it will be lightly pruned as we go through the summer, but nothing drastic. One or two members of the JGS lightly shape their acers all through the summer but nothing too severe; the big loppers come out to play in Nov.
Many years ago, when I used to keep a lot of acer bonsai, a national 'expert' who gave our club a talk one evening said that you can be absolutely ruthless when pruning them and it seems you can with the full size tree, provided it's done at the appropriate time- Rob
... oh dear! My *sincerest* apologies to