I tamed the beast

A few years ago I purchased this really lovely bush from the garden center. In the spring is has a wonderful fragrant flower, and I love the twisting bark. I had no idea it was going to get SO BIG! A common garden mistake. However, even when buying, I had no idea this thing was a huge unruly giant of a tree. Not a bush at all.

I've since found out it's called a chinese fringe tree. And they're a specimin in most gardens. Hard to grow, and rare. Their counterpart is the Fringe Tree, more of a tree, the chinese one is more of a spreading bark, and an exfoliating bark (like river birch) so the bark itself can also be decorative in the garden. My chinese fringe tree has defied the rules, everything I read says they're slow growers, could have fooled me, I can't keep this one from growing. It's as high as the house, an I think it's only been 3 or 4 years. But it is beautiful. Had I known what it was or read up on it when I purchased it I would have known give it a 15 to 20 ft radius of room to grow. Oh well.

And as much as I hate to pull out plants or trees, especially healthy ones, I had to tame this one, or yank it. So, last night I pulled out my pruners, and started going at it. Pruning is something I pride myself on doing a great job at. I think I have a natural eye for following the natural growth, creating a great canopy, and keeping things in check. I'll have to keep an eye on it as the next concern is the root system being so close to the foundation.

I was rather aggressive with this one, and may have made a mistake or two, but overall, I'm quite pleased with the results. Now I can see out my deck to the other side of the garden. Before pruning, my view was huge wall of green foliage. with a little under-planting, this will look lovely. I'm quite pleased.

The green giant has been tamed.