Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Need help with my smoke tree (pruning), 0 by erdooley

erdooley wrote:
I sort of thought this would go under a Shrub forum or a Pruning forum, but couldn't find one. I hope someone on here can help. I have this smoke tree (it may be a smoke bush, instead of tree, but I'm not sure...) that is growing all crazy. This is the 4th spring I've had it. Originally I did not want to prune it because I heard somewhere that once you prune one, you keep having to do it and that it's better to let a smoke tree find it's natural shape. I'm all for that philosophy, but this tree grew all crazy. As you can see from the first picture, it just kind of grew straight up and looks kind of like it's begging for pruning. So I pruned it and it looked okay the first year, but didn't bloom because of the pruning. Like a crape myrtle that has been pruned (yes, I know you shouldn't really prune those, either...), multiple branches grew out from where each cut was made. So this year I didn't prune it and hence it's full of blooms, but also the branches are all drooped over. We did have alot of rain yesterday which made them bend, but I don't think they will snap back even when they're dry. So now it looks all crazy, which you will see in the second picture. So I need to know how I should prune this monster, if at all.