Extreme Pruning – Cut-backs with Ken

This Week's Podcast: A replay: Extreme Pruning

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MP3 File

As
regular listeners may remember, I spoke in Copake Falls, NY a few weeks ago,
and after talking about damage to the garden in New Jersey, a couple of the
people who attended the lecture and workshop volunteered to come and help weed.
At this point with all of the weeds brought by the river, anyone with a
willingness to work is welcome.
Last week, Brian Michaud drove down from Albany, NY,
to help for the day. He, Louis Bauer and I got a whole lot done. It was great
to learn more about Brian who is developing a beautiful garden on the site of
his Greek revival house. He certainly can weed.
As we walked around looking at plants, he noticed one in front of the house that always grabs the most attention. It is a Paulownia “cutback” (above). Coppicing or stooling, as this severe pruning technique is called, makes this tree produce one enormous shoot with leaves up to two feet across.

Every year
in
late winter, I cut the former summer's growth to a few inches above the ground. In mid-spring,
shoots appear around the outside of the former year’s growth. I remove all but
one (left), and
that one grows fast and tall, ultimately reaching some 12 feet by September. Everyone who sees it calls it the “Jack-in-the-bean-stalk” plant.
On today’s show, I talk about this extreme pruning
technique.
Cutback candidates:
Berberis ‘Red Cloak’, large-leaf barberry
Produces
strong shoots with larger leaves, stops fruiting of this potentially invasive
plant
Carpinus
betulus, European
hornbeam
For
infomal hedge
Catalpa
bignoiodes, Indian bean tree and cigar tree
Produces
large leaves
Eucalyptus, gum tree
Produces
prettier bluish-silver juvenile growth, stops fruiting of this invasive tree
Fagus
sylvatica, European
beech
Produces
multiple stems for hedging
Paulownia, empress tree, foxglove tree,
princess tree
Stops
flowering and fruiting of this potentially invasive species, produces enormous
growth and huge leaves in one season. Should be done every year.
Platanus, London plane, sycamore

Produces multiple stems, large leaves