Part 1 – March

Pin Lee demonstrated how to prune the Japanese Maples in the Asian Garden in March 2014.

Here are some guidelines from Pin’s demonstration:

  • Plan to prune in early spring before the sap runs and in June when the leaves are out
  • Remove shoots going up or down
  • Eliminate one side of Ys
  • Remove ugly branches
  • Leave two buds
  • Remove branches touching each other
  • Bring down height of tree
  • Prevent tree from growing too wide
  • Use good judgment for overall structure of the tree
  • If branches are parallel, remove one
  • If group of three branches, take centre one
  • Use concave cutter to make clean cut for medium branches
  • Use saw for larger branches
  • Get inside tree for a different perspective
  • Pruning rules are useful, but if you only follow the rules you will get lost
  • Prune to an overall vision of how you want the tree to look
  • Expect to spend a lot of time pruning to do a good job

Part 2 – June

Pin Lee demonstrates pruning the ornamental maples in June. Great stuff!