Pruner's Remorse

Today was a beautiful day in my corner of the world.  58 degrees and sunny.  Blue skies with the fluffiest little clouds here and there.  It was time to prune.  It was time to break out Nick's Christmas toy for the first time.

The most important thing to remember about pruning is that you should do it while the trees are still hibernating (very late fall to very early spring).  First up on the list: the Crabapple tree.  

This is my crabapple tree, my favorite tree in our yard.  It's incredible when it blooms.  

But, trees should not be shaped like fans.  This tree, however, was let to grow willy-nilly and it's not so healthy.  Enter Nick's chainsaw: 

It's still a little stout but it's better than it was before.  I just hope we didn't take too much off.  That's always my biggest concern.  Then i think about what trees look like when they're topped and I think i didn't do that much damage.  

I also did the rose bush.  The first year we were here, I cut the rose bush down to the ground .  It looked healthy, but I didn't see a single blossom.  Last spring, I didn't touch it because I was worried that it hadn't bloomed the past year, though my parents prune theirs back .  It bloomed beautifully, but some of the shoots grew so long that they couldn't support their own weight! Apparently my roses are tea roses and could probably use something to climb.  This afternoon, I cut it to the ground again so that I could start over again and this time use a trellis.  Too bad it probably won't flower this year :(.  

I trimmed the fruit trees and raspberry bushes while Nick cut down the arborvitae that last years snow storms damaged.  

I felt like a logger, spray-painting the height i wanted it cut at.  

Almost done!

I have big plans for this stump, wait 'till ya'll see.  

Unfortunately, a hazelnut tree sapling was damaged in the production of this post.  Nick feels it will recover, I'm not so certain.