Japanese Maple

4 Jul '06 11:24 pm

Hi all,

I was just sitting in my garden the other night after work, waiting for my husband to come home, enjoying a lovely warm and sunny evening (sorry to rub it in there, but it doesn't happen all that often over here in good ol' England, so I'm sure you'll allow me just this once!! Very Happy

)

Anyway, I was looking around, inspecting this and that, and I decided that my acer tree is just getting far too large now. I absolutely love that tree, it turns a vivid red in the autumn, but unfortuntately it is just completely overshadowing about a 3 or 4 metre space in the corner of the garden.

A couple of years ago I did prune it a bit, but a friend told me (after the event Rolling Eyes

) that acers don't like it, so I have to admit, I've been afraid to ever since.

Could someone please help me with this, as I don't want to do anything to harm my beautiful tree (and the cats love climbing in its branches too!), but something needs to be done!

Was my friend wrong about this (or maybe I misunderstood what she said!)? If so, what is the best thing to do - I imagine if I were to prune it, the best time would be after the leaves have fallen so it's the wrong season right now, but can I cut it back quite a lot or will it get upset with me?

Thanks
Bambi

7 Jul '06 2:28 am

Sorry, I seem to have posted this in the wrong section - meant it to be in the general one rather than the diaries, although if I were to photograph the tree now, then after I've pruned it (if, indeed, that is what I'm advised to do Smile

) and then again when it is in full leaf again, would that count as a diary?!?!?! Wink

15 Jul '06 8:42 pm

I think you'd be best to prune this tree when it's having 'down time' That means winter, I think! But I am no expert, and I tend to chop at things when I notice them rather than when I should. Good luck, and I hope your cats don't sulk!

1 Aug '06 9:34 pm

Thanks Moosey, I think I was leaning towards doing that, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't being totally stupid or something Wink

I have to admit, I'm just the same, though, I've been looking at my maple and a couple of other bushes/small trees in the garden and I've been itching to hack away at them because they're all a little too large for the spaces they're in, but I'm going to have to hold back, aren't I?

Hee hee, I think the cats are already sulking because we had a massive clear out of the garden last week while I was off work, and they've lost quite a few good hiding places now!! Wink

It's looking a little bare but at least it's tidy, and we've got rid of loads of annoying things that seem to have been trying to take over by seeding themselves all over the place. Evil or Very Mad

I've got a few plans now that we can actually see what we've got to work with, and I'll keep you all posted with how it goes...

Japanese Maple

Japanese Maple

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maple prunng

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