ERD50
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Inspired by that thread about whether to talk to the guy with the comb-over:
The previous owners let the globe arborvitaes get over-grown and grow into each other. I'm trying to get them trimmed back into shape, which isn't easy as they also suffer from what I call "hedge trimmer disease" - they've been trimmed at the surface w/o cutting out branches to get light inside, so when you try to cut them back, there's just nothing a few inches down. And these types tend not to sprout new buds on old wood.
So after I trim them back, there are some pretty bad bald spots. There's also some wind/dog/salt damage on one, leaving a bare/bald spot.
So I was wondering about trying to train some of these branches, sort of like a bonsai, and try to tie/wire them over the bald spots, and also trying to train some the long branches over to the inside of the bush, so those can fill out the inside a bit, now that they can get some light.
I've tried web searches, haven't really come up with anything.
Thoughts?
This is the type I'm talking about, and how they should look:
I trimmed back a lot of the plants here last year and some this spring, often very drastically, after reading up on when it can be done for that variety, and I've had good success, they are growing back nicely. These evergreens are trickier, and I get conflicting info. If this doesn't look better next year, I'll have them dug out and replaced. I'm too old to wait years for a plant to rejuvenate (though I still buy green bananas!).
-ERD50
The previous owners let the globe arborvitaes get over-grown and grow into each other. I'm trying to get them trimmed back into shape, which isn't easy as they also suffer from what I call "hedge trimmer disease" - they've been trimmed at the surface w/o cutting out branches to get light inside, so when you try to cut them back, there's just nothing a few inches down. And these types tend not to sprout new buds on old wood.
So after I trim them back, there are some pretty bad bald spots. There's also some wind/dog/salt damage on one, leaving a bare/bald spot.
So I was wondering about trying to train some of these branches, sort of like a bonsai, and try to tie/wire them over the bald spots, and also trying to train some the long branches over to the inside of the bush, so those can fill out the inside a bit, now that they can get some light.
I've tried web searches, haven't really come up with anything.
Thoughts?
This is the type I'm talking about, and how they should look:
I trimmed back a lot of the plants here last year and some this spring, often very drastically, after reading up on when it can be done for that variety, and I've had good success, they are growing back nicely. These evergreens are trickier, and I get conflicting info. If this doesn't look better next year, I'll have them dug out and replaced. I'm too old to wait years for a plant to rejuvenate (though I still buy green bananas!).
-ERD50