I bought this little JM years ago and had it in a pot for around three years. I planted it in the ground here about three years ago. It is beautiful, but when I bought this tree, I was not in the habit of recording information. Bad, bad, me!
I wanted to see what the rest of you here think. Beni Schichihenge, right? I'm just not sure. A few pics follow.
Closeup of the leaves:
Certainly looks like Beni Shichihenge
Nice tree, Irmaly. Your leaves look like my Beni 'she-she' leaves. I can't wait for mine to get as big as yours! You're gonna make me go take a picture of mine now, aren't you? ;-) LOL
I'll chime in and say that I agree. Nothing else with a leaf pattern like that I don't think.
I don't know what Todd would say, but I would stake this tree upright if it's flexible enough. Choose the taller part as the central leader and remove the longer branch on the bottom - or not once you have it staked. It's supposed to be an upright tree and I think that you'll be happier with it if this is still possible. It's what I'd do if it were mine.
That's interesting, doss. I want to think this through. The tree stayed very small until last year. It did not have thte two "wings," let's call them on the right and on the left. Do you see what I mean? One "wing" grew left, and the other "wing" turned right. As you can see, most of the leaf color is in the older (bottom) part of the tree although the new "wings" have lots of color too and are getting more and more. I am not sure what to do with the wings. I have thought about cutting them off. I had not thought to cut the way you said. I am going to get more pics and see if you still think that's what I should do. Thanks!
You are welcome. If you leave the tree the way it is, it will be structurally unsound and I don't think that you'll be happy with it. The first thing that I try to do when I get a new tree is to understand what the central leader will be. BTW, what is the ground cover you are using?
Doss has a good point. In my area, a JM shaped like yours would split near the base from snow load or freezing rain. It will be a drastic action, but you might have to bite the bullet. The taller wing should be trained to be upright with the shorter wing removed altogether. The only other alternative might be to shorten the long wing so its balanced with the shorter. The angle between these two is still structually weak and might cause future problems.
I agree with the others but you could try to just cut the top third of the right wing off and some of the left top and it may be fine ..I like the v shape and if you equalize 'em a bit they may be ok. If you cut all the right off you need to stake it more upright...It's hard to tell the angle of photo seems off but I do think you could take some off the right and still have a bushy sort of tree that would look good and be sound and by taking off some of right you'd have the most colorful part of the tree showing ..But the others are probably right and it should be totally removed ...but as I said w/o staking your right main leader may start to weep over..David
We'll look forward to your photos. But remember that the rest of the tree will get colorful too. This is a tree you will have a very long time and it's important to get it started in the right direction.
I'm sure no one else has noticed this, --and please don't be offended--but....
I think you have a tree here that you could get big bucks for on E-bay. Not that it's in the form of something holy, but....It is naturally in the shape of a horse that is facing left!! You can even see the tail flying and the 2 front hooves. Don't trim it!! :)
It could be a neighborhood place of interest! (My neighbor down the street has 2 yaupons side-by-side that he has trimmed into conical forms. He calls them his "Dolly Partons"!!!)
HA!! it does look like a horse ( what were you smoking when you saw that ...we sure didn't ;>) but I would bet it would not stay that way for long unless ya trim it each year topiary style...and as has been said it is not structurally stable as is i would NOT leave trigger as is or he might loose a leg or another part and have to be put to "down" ;>) ...David
I actually had just come in from a long (well, 4 hours) non-stop drive from Dallas, and was probably "high" on car exhaust!
But I'm sticking with my vote NOT to 'put down' Trigger...seriously!
LOL, Connie_W. I ain't got no plans to put down Trigger. I am going to examine my little tree further today and perhaps get some additional pics. I'm not sure what to do, but I'm sure all of us here can figure it out. Don't know what I'd do without the folks at Dave's!
Before we go too far irmaly, is the tree flexible enough to stake upright?
Okay, here goes. I went out to look at the tree further and to get some more pics from different angles. Excuse the quality of these pics. Not a very good time of day to shot in this area.
doss, the tree is "somewhat" flexible, but I must say, while I can pull it enough to stake upright, it really puts up a struggle. I can do it, but it will take a bit of heavy handedness.
Following are 7 pics of different angles, etc. Note that the "wings" are extensions of the main branches--they are not offshoots, so I think we have to take that into consideration.
Here goes. Comments, advice, etc. much welcomed.
I think this first shot, taken sorta from behind the tree, shows the best representation of how the tree branches work. Note that the tree has two main branches that start near teh bottom of the main trunk.
Next shot. Bottom of the tree.
Next. Another angle.
Another angle.
Another.
Awaiting diagnosis with baited breath....
I think that there are two choices here. If you want a single trunked tree then stake and prune. Otherwise you can wait and see what happens. You'll end up with a tree with several major branches. This isn't always a bad thing.
This is the trunk structure of a beautiful seedling which has a lot of low trunk branching. It just may be it's nature though.
I really hate to tell you what to do. Although I guess I've already done that. :-)
The important thing is not to do anything that you don't want to do.
The plant is just fine. Leave it alone, or you just might kill it with kindness.
Dave.
This was all predicated on the larger limb being flexible. Since it's not, I'd agree with Dave.
I stick with what I first said ...trim in fall to make it a little more balanced so it won't split...stake if necessary and leave it basically like it is ...so I basically ageee with others and NEVER thought that major pruning was necessary but at the same time keep it more balanced...other than the exceesive "trigger" look I like it's basic look personally... which with minor fall pruning can be achieved easily...without major hacking... !!! ...david
Things do tend to balance themselves out with time. I agree that gentle lightening of the one side this fall will help. I am not sure how you would stake this, however.
Laura
I know next to nothing about JM's (although I have one that Doss helped me with...a watering problem) BUT I can just see the two wings as draping over toward the ground in about 10 years...and looking very Asian garden.... BUT....I know nothing of "splitting," etc....I just read to gain knowledge, as DH wants sereral more JMs.
Thanks to all...
irmaly, the tree is beautiful, but it's the ground cover that i love! it really makes the colors in the tree come out even more. i've got to know the name of that ground cover, please!
Thanks, ashleykelly. That ground cover is plain old creeping jenny: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/677/index.html
I use a lot of it. Great color, perfect especially to shade the roots of clematis. Spreads fast, but really easy to pull from where you don't want it.
In reading Dave's reports several reguard this as an invasive plant ...I don't know if that is true but I personally would be careful...especially as one person said they are trying to get rid of it and are having problems ...and the name is a bit like creeping charley maybe a sister??? ;>)...which is a scurge in these parts and virtually impossiblre to get rid of especially in perenial gardens where you can't spray herbacides and most everything is left alone and not heavily cultivated ... In fact because of "charley" we have had to get rid of almost all our perenial gardens ...even heavey mulch won't kill this stuff it loves it and entangles its roots in it ... Now I'm not saying "jenny is the same ...it doesn't even look the same but if it is that massive in it's growth and it is invasive in some areas I would be careful to introduce it unless you have a small area secluded and greatly seperated from everything else of value to try it first... ...just feelings on this type of or for that matter any type of ground cover ...david
that would have been my guess based on the color, but i wasn't sure. i have some, but now i'm thinking about more. it goes well with everything, especially my dark purples, which sees to be dominating these days. thanks for getting back with me. :o))
