Crimson Queen Trimming Suggestions

i also like the bonsai look, not the size but the shapes
you have all seen by my CQ http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/66161/
i trimmed it for 25 years
also have 2 other mushroom shapes one a red dragon and
i do not like the looks of them
i will be trimming them for the next several years now


This message was edited Nov 15, 2009 9:05 AM

strever i will also be going at both of mine again this year - they have grown a lot after last years trim job.

Wha
you want to decide on a look you like, then take your time getting there
i retired to the Northern Calif and could not leave my CQ in So Calif
i dug it up and brought it with me :-) i let it sit for a cpl of years to recover from the shock
this newer image in the pot shows it's shape a little better

Dick

my wife thinks that when we get older we will need to move because there are too many stairs here - the house is on a slight slope to a wet lands area - i've told her that i wold consider it although we would have to be able to afford both houses for a year or more as i would move every tree, shrub and stone to the new property.

i also brought one of my CQ's with me from a home a few towns over along with many other shrubs :)

You think you have stairs, Bill!!! I live in a double barn with lofts! When I can't do the stairs anymore, I'll move into town to a house I own (and now rent) with no space to do heavy gardening. I figure if I can't climb the stairs, I bet gardening 3.3 acres is out. Let's enjoy while we can, I figure!

kathy that is what i tell my wife - it is 40 years till that is a consideration - i hope!!

thought i would resurrect this thread - this is a picture of the crimson queen through sango kaku during a snow storm this winter,

i decided to really give this one a trim - compare it to the shot at the start of this thread

and here it is from another angle

still have another CQ to trim up in the back yard once the snow melts - it is interesting to compare the two of them - the one here is older by a few years - the one in the back i noticed has a huge trunk in comparison - grafted to different root stock or maybe just happier in the dirt it lives in.

It's looking great, Wha. I bet your anxious to see it in leaf again.

yes i am - my wife's comment was i butchered it - i am sure once it leafs out i will still look like a mushroom

Boy tough wife ;>) I would have done more but probably good you didn't may have had divorce papers with a bow on it ties to the tree. It makes it harder to really open it up because it is short .I prefer to stake my dissectums and train them to be a bit higher but have many like that which look differnt but super cool ..., all a persoanl thing. Taller dissectums can be much easier ... . here is my generic seed grown ( I assume) this jpeg from 2008 .. ne3xt I will post a pic of it now .. the old pick it is VERY hard to see the trunk it was small and the tree itelf was becoming to un-ruley for me it gets allot of shade ( that may be why it grew more upwards) but we severely trimmed it back then and kept it so ... we wanted to see trunk structure .. This may or may not be advisable for other dissectums . Low grafted ones that I like ( I always try to have low grafted trees of any type.). lend themselves to this treatment best.... high grafts .... well the graft area will show the rootstock often much bigger than the named tree ... they tend to look bulbous with age . a foot or so is ok but these days some growes do at 2-3 ft .. it is hideous IMHO... the actual tree is only maybe a foot tall on top. if you have high grafted trees you may be best to let them become "Cousin It's" since they will cover any high grafts .. and there is nothing wrong with that look. This is the before Jpeg
Davidsan

Here is what it looks like today the fence is gone now we took it out. ... not butchered just cool trunk and the sructrure of branches on it that you can see even with leaves on it.... with more spread and open sculpted look. I don't see this any is better or worse than the other way, just different and you have do deal with the trees you have...

Davidsan

i have a viridis similiar to that shape that will recieve a trim once the snow melts - i like both looks low and high - will have to remember to stake some of the smaller dissectums i have to give them some height.

nice fall color on yours btw

looking much better wha
i like the looks of yours David-san
that is also my personal like
i have a cpl staked up teaching them to grow up :-)

Very nice, Bill! I can see you are making good use of your time now that you are not penned in by the snow! Hank said to tell you that the Sox play the Yankees tonight on tv....he wouldn't want you to miss it! Also, he's wondering if you've dug out your horseshoe pits yet???? Do you want him to bring you any special horseshoe sand up from Florida? lol Now keep in mind that if it comes down to it, and it's your sand or my plants that will fit in the car, guess which one of us is going to prevail?????? :)

Also - I love the look of the new houses on the other thread. You are quite the busy little beaver there!! None will ever compare to the statuesque beauty of my Wha Creation though!!! Can't wait to get up there and bring it out! I came close to leaving it outside for the birds and am SO glad I took it in. whew! once in awhile I make a good call!

hi louise - around that jm is the only place where the snow has melted - still 2 feet in the rest of the yard.

sand in a horseshoe pit? hank should know it calls for a sand/clay mixture - i use infield dirt that is pre-mixed. looking forward to schooling him again!

Sounds like fight'en words. Rematch? I agree that the Acer now looks great. I have one to do as soon as I get home from VT. Patti

Beatiful jobs wha and David. I have a cq with the graft about 2 feet high and that's ok because it's planted at the front of the bed. I have to trim the width though because it's in a planter next to a pool. Luckily that's not such a hard thing to do.

oooooooh, how mean!!!! and in public, no less! Hank says he thought your pits were wooden paneled. LOL LOL LOL!!!!! CAT FIGHT!!!!!!!!!! Everyone's invited! :)

So, Bill, what can you do to get rid of all that snow for us? You know there just might be a lunch of the good dogs in it for you! We'll cook the dogs on the pit. Here's how it looks now..........

A bit more trimming and it will be perfect for horseshoes, Bill. ^_^

LOL, Victor!

Can I plant a Crimson Queen in a large pot in my area. I am in zone 6b to 7a. If so what kind of pot and how big.

yes you can - pot size would depend on how big the root system is and when you would want to re-pot it into a large container

Will the roots freeze in the winter? The tree is now about 2 ft high and round. This is its second year in the ground.

It is dicey leaving pots out in winter . with even larger trees in LARGER POTS with allot of dirt can be damaged or die i have found out the hard way ...It becomes worse if you have allot of rain that freezes in the pot around the roots or snow that melts and freezes ... best to bring in an unheated garage... if it stays in the 20's and is dry you should be ok ... but how you can guarantee that is ???..Pot size is tricky .. I use to be a card carrying member of the lazy potters association ;>) I have learned not a good idea .. Yes putting in a larger pots saves having to repot as often but you can easily have it stay too wet or even occasionally too dry and Jms really do better when they feel the roots barely touching the pot edges .. I have no idea why but all of mine do... the ones in large pots grow slower and linger the ones in smaller pots take off much faster....Davidsan

It's nice to look back at these photos. I'm a big fan of seeing the structure in the tree, regardless of the height of the graft.

I've got some massive budding going on...got to locate my camera and charge it up and get some photos this week.

Laura

here is my other cq that i promised to post - took off more than what is left - at least that is what it felt like

viridis that i touched up

and another smaller viridis - i really like the look of the branch structure on this one

Very nice pruning jobs. You won't regret "opening" them up to reveal the branching. It'll be exciting to see them leaf out.

thx hoosier

I need to go prune the JM/CQ outside because someone planted it about a foot from the sidewalk. I am renting here and don't know how long it has been there or who planted it. It seems to have grown outwards a couple of feet just in the last couple of months. It is beautiful but I am really concerned that if I cannot get it under control now and getting taller rather than spilling over into the walkway then it will actually take over the walk entirely. I will post a pic sometime this week both before and after a conservative cutback.

Also we had a couple of blizzards this year and a few weeks ago I noticed that the main trunk has split right down the middle. I know it did it really recently because it is still nice and blonde. Despite that happening the branches still shot out really long so it seems to me that it did not phase it at all. It has been and still is staked and tide to a stick and that probably helped it from totally getting destroyed from the weight of the snow on top of it but what do you think will happen at this point? Should I seal it up somehow or let it just heal on it's own?

Also when I prune a few of the lower branches off, since they are good soft cuttings will I be able to get several softwood cuttings from them? I got some rooting hormone. I want to do that with the JM and also the other shrubs next to it that I don't know what they are called. I figure no need in letting perfectly good cuttings go to waste if they will root for me.

Tricia

I just found this great video on how it is done. This is a large tree farm/nursery but I am going to see what happens when I try it with my little cuttings.

http://youtu.be/DXNqfXH0pKc