Just a few before and after shots of pruned trees for those afraid of mangling your small trees. I first prune up the lower branches and then remove one third to one half of the branches to leave a layered look. Some dwarf english boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruticosa’) before (unpruned in the middle) -

and after some spring repruning after being planted for 18 months -

and with the latest addition to the layout, a Timberline Station cabin -

a bunch of scraggily looking dwarf Alberta Spruce planted last fall -

looking rather lush this Spring -

-Brian

Jan has a dwarf alberta sprice that each year has grown bigger than it should. It got to almost 30 inches tall and maybe 3 foot around at base. For those that have been here, it is at Seaweed Junction. Anyway, on Memorial Day the top 18 inches was cut off and the bottom cleared out up about 10 inches. It is now a beautiful large shade tree on a garden scale ralroad. Looks pretty good and is much the same to the scale world, as the large 60 year old white oak, that provides shade for our entire back yard from our neighbor’s tree.

Pictures are being held for a clinic to be offered next Winter at the Gateway Garden Railroad Club Winter Meet. I’ll see if she’ll let me post one or two.

Pruning is a situation where they might grow back fuller and faster than if you left them alone.
I pruned some dwarf boxwoods similar to yours.
They regrew this spring into bigger and fuller boxwoods!
So now I take off the bottom branches to expose a trunk, and round them off.

I am going to try to “stunt” an alberta spruce by topping it. With my luck it will prolly split and send two branches north.

But its all part of the phun, right?

I put mine in small pots, and thus constrain the roots which limits growth. You are basically doing “bonsai” type of work, which, of course, can work, and has for centuries…

Regards, Greg

I read a tree pruning article in an old Garden Railways magazine which said to take a sharp hand trowel (sp?) and run it deep into the ground at the drip line of the tree. The author said the trick was to keep the roots and top of the tree in balance. Trim the top and trim the roots for a healthy tree. I have been doing this this spring but it is too soon to tell it if is doing anything.

Nice trees Brian I had a couple of nice Dwarf English Boxwoods that I picked up cheap late in the season last year. Had them trimmed up real nice to look like fruit trees. They never made it into the ground and the roots froze over the winter so I lost them. Here’s a couple of Dwarf Alberta Spruces that did make it into the ground last yer. The one in the middle is the way it came, the two outside ones are trimmed to look more like trees.

(http://lsc.cvsry.com/Trees-3-640.JPG)