I recently received this question from Wendy in Wisconsin, I have a 15 yr. old sargent crab apple, multi-trunked, planted 6 ft. from the house, under a large window 8 ft. from the ground. The hope was the tree wouldn't grow beyond 8 ft. in height, but it’s now more like 10 ft.…Last year, because the tree had grown above the bottom of the window, I pruned the ends of all the top branches (i.e. shortened the tree)… This year there is vigorous new growth (3-4 ft., with multiple branches from … [Read more...]
Four season interest crabapples
On my last post, I talked about how to add winter interest to your garden. Number 5 of my 7 pointers was to add plants with colorful winter berries. Today, I am going to talk about my favorite type of tree for winter berries, the four season interest crabapple. … [Read more...]
Crabapple Pruning in 4 Easy Steps: Overgrown Mess No More (Part 2 of 3)
Here is how our overgrown tree looked after step 1 of our crabapple pruning was completed. See Crabapple Pruning in 4 Easy Steps: Overgrown Mess No More (Part 1 of 3) for details. Now, we will continue onto step 2, water sprout removal. … [Read more...]
Crabapple Pruning in 4 Easy Steps: Overgrown Mess No More (Part 1 of 3)
This flowering crabapple was left alone for 3 years with no pruning. Regular crabapple pruning is required to have a great looking tree. When pruning an overgrown tree like this after years of neglect, it is best to proceed one step at a time and address one type of defect at a time. … [Read more...]