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Thursday 18 June 2009

A Pampered Sumac's Progress

This is March 28th, a little while after I did the "pollard" cutting to my beloved Staghorn Sumac.
There was utter chaos for months here with the new deck and shed projects .. stir in the added heart stopper, of deleting almost all of April's photos by the idiot I was that day, trying to "clean up" files.
So now there is a gap in the sequence of how my Sumac follows through with my drastic pruning methods .. but here is what I have been able to retrieve ...
Some days have such a gray cast, the colour is washed out .. so many rain days .. welcomed but pictures lose their vibrancy sadly.
May 5th
May 14th
May 18th
May 27th
June 18th
June 18th
June 13 .. I have to be careful and prune part of it away from my neighbor's clothes line .. oops !

Yes .. there is a bit of a "bump' in the last pictures because I wanted to include the "horns" beginning. Once it starts to grow from its short "feathered leaves" it GROWS : )

The overall point is .. YES .. it is a drastic technique .. YES, you will most likely NEVER see another Sumac grown and pruned this way .. it started out as an experiment and I loved the final results and the finale with Autumn's explosion of colour and texture, between the foliage and the berry horns. It is a special love in my garden : )

14 comments:

Gail said...

You did a great job Joy...truthfully, I would never be that brave! I like the pollarded look and think it world perfectly with a sumac. I can't wait for our TES to get that tall! gail

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

I love the sight of new shoots... red tiny things ready to burst, shouldering every responsibility to keep the body and soul of the plant alive...

Everything change within a month. Such an energetic tree...

Have a nice day,
~ bangchik

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hi Gail .. it took a bit of holding my breath the first year I did it .. but I got used to doing it and it isn't so scary now .. I can't wait to see it in Autumn colours .. and YES ! our TES .. well they are going to look STUNNING aren't they !!

Cathy S. said...

You are surely a brave person to do that but it is growing back nicely.
I can't wait to see it in the autumn.

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

I think it looks fabulous! I know the fall color will be out of this world as usual!(-:
Next fall I plan to do some drastic cutting back of mine too. Its spread out and ghostly(-: It needs a trim to remove all the dead wood.
My Ancient tree is more then 20 years old now!

tina said...

Neat experiment and I'm looking for those fall pictures with the horns-glowing eyes too??:)

Katarina said...

Joy, that's a great-looking Sumac! You are so creative - and brave - an artist of the garden!
Katarina

gittan said...

Hi Joy, I think your Sumac looks great! I bought one a few years ago but it was the wrong kind =( so we dont get those beautiful red horns. Thinking about taking it away and get a new one... Do you have problem with the roots making a lot of new sprouts? We certanly have! That's another reason why we are getting tired of the Sumac in our garden, being the wrong kind and sending out so many sprouts everywhere

CanadianGardenJoy said...

B & K ! .. Thank you !
You squeezed in there between comments ! LOL
Yes .. the red shoots do take on a lot of responsibility for how the over all look matures .. you are very perceptive of this process : )

Hi there Cathy .. the first time it was the most unnerving ? .. but I have done it a few years now so I don't feel as stressed ? about it all .. : )

Cindee girl ! My goodness your tree has been aging gracefully .. but needs a little tough love with the pruning ? Take pictures girl ! I want to see how things turn out : )

Tina girl .. Halloween is counting down nicely and those horns with some glowing eyes will be ready !! LOL

Hello there Katarina and thank you so much girl ! It did make me worry the first time .. but hey, the first time is always the hardest , right ? LOL

Hello gittan girl ! .. Yes ! .. there are many cultivars of Sumac .. the horns are certainly the emphasis for Autumn with this one. And YES ! .. that is the dark side of Sumac in general .. they want to create new ones all over .. and it is a bit of a bother but I manage so far to keep up with it all .. now if horticulturists would create a birth control for it ?? LOL

Randy said...

Success! Joy your garden is lovely. What’s the vine growing in the last photo?--Randy

Carrie said...

Yes it was drastic and rather scary when you did that, I remember. But.. It looks flippin' brilliant, very beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Looks like your drastic haircut in March really paid off Joy! It looks really great & I love the horns. ;)

Kathleen said...

You definitely love your sumac ~ after all you named your garden after it, right?! I haven't seen a sumac pruned this way but I think it's attractive. I don't know why it's so hard to hack our shrubs back but it is. My tree guy told me I should be cutting a third of all my shrubs each year to encourage new growth. It scared me to death. Have I done it? No! You get the award for bravery!
PS I just moved my passion vine to a container. It was not liking where it was planted in the ground. I'm down to one leaf and a nub. :-( I may have to admire yours....

CanadianGardenJoy said...

Hello there Randy : ) Thank you ! The bugs and slugs are becoming more of a problem now though .. the vine in the skinny arbor is Bittersweet .. can be a bit of a handful but it is lush and when it's small flowers to berries pop .. the bees LOVE it !

Carrie girl : ) Thank you ! you are so sweet to remember it from the start of this year .. it does make my heart thump a bit but having done it a few years now .. I'm a little less jumpy about it ; )

Racquel girl .. the horns get better and better and the leaves lusher .. now the time to look forward to is Autumn .. then the colour is magnificent : )

Hellllooo Kathleen .. I know that rule of thumb, but it makes me crazy too .. BUT .. I did pay heavily for not doing it correctly with my Madame LeMoin lilac .. it looks so bare and scary right now .. I did a drastic cut back .. new shoots have sprouted but it will take about 3 years to get it back where it should be. I juts fertilized it this morning too ; )
My goodness ! your vines is not doing well ? .. I have to take a picture today and show mine , it finally is moving "up" two arms wave at me now .. maybe yours will take off in the pot now too ? Hope so ! fingers crossed !!