I can't say whether or not I would truncate the leader, but as long as you're ok with it, there's no reason to feel like it needs to be done now. You can always take it off - putting it back on is something different. ;-) You have a lot of things working against you at this time. The tree looks sad because it's not a good time to repot, you removed half the roots, and probably lost a fair fraction of the remaining fine roots as a result of not keeping the roots moist. I'm saying that by way of explanation, rather than in an accusatory way. Your tree took a hit, and you're doing what's physiologically sound in order to bring it back around and get it to a place where you can have a lot more control over its vitality and appearance. It takes patience when you're forced to put yourself on tree time as opposed to the hectic pace of most of our lives. For me, pieces of my life spent on 'tree time' are a super way to unwind. Take a few minutes every day and look your tree over carefully. Learn to enjoy what's happening, even though your first impression leaves you feeling concerned. Soon, you'll see signs of new growth, even if the tree sheds all or most of its leaves. It might not look attractive, but you'll have a lot of personal satisfaction knowing that the hope you mentioned is being realized. I bet that if you make a conscious effort to change the way you view your recent experience, you'll easily be able to turn what appears to be a negative experience into something relaxing and positive - just by changing focus to some of the things I mentioned. As long as you can keep the soil moist and not wet/soggy, keep the tree warm and in good light, I don't think you have much to worry about - unless you are overly stressed by the plant's appearance. I see that as a superficial consideration because of how temporary it is. I can't help you with its appearance, yet, because helping the tree over a rough patch takes priority over maintaining its eye appeal. Whatever questions you have, someone will be around to answer or offer suggestions. I get a note every time you post, and I'll be keeping track of the thread. If you get a chance, a post-pruning picture would be great. Al

Depends on if anyone there ever imports it and puts it on the market - something that may never happen. We have a number of different kinds that are or have been on the market here that have never become prevalent - or even present at all, it would seem - in Britain. (Since there is extensive participation a good place to look for signs of a retail presence of any particular plant is The RHS Plant Finder). I haven't seen any columnar purple-leaved cultivars mentioned by A. L. Jacobson in his book Purpleleaf Plums (1992, Timber Press, Portland). Jacobson is a careful and thorough researcher who spends years preparing each of his titles, combs through dusty old nursery catalogs in the basements of university libraries, studies live specimens in arboreta, botanic gardens and nurseries, and even buys examples of plants of interest and grows them himself, in his garden or house in order to make his own observations. So it is pretty safe to assume that if his 1992 book (apparently) doesn't have anything about them narrow habit purple-leaf plums were basically unknown before the same general period of time that the Australian and Lake County introductions both appeared. Suggesting that an Australian company imported the American tree, with them or another firm putting it on the market with different naming there. A way to check would be to look for any historical information about the Australian stock that may be available.

A - Help forthcoming if you do your part by providing us a picture. Al

Hi there, I have a beautiful fiddle leaf who had a rough few years. She's definitely on the mend since I repotted her last summer and has rewarded us with lots of top growth and lovely new leaves. I was also able to propagate all of cuttings I took last summer as well. Soon I will have a fiddle leaf forrest in my apartment. My question is when to hard prune her this year. Because of a significant lack of light during the hard years she dropped all of her lower leaves and is now extremely leggy. My plan is to cut all three branches all the way back to the top of the thickest part of the trunk, but I'm not sure when to prune. She seems to love the abundance of sunlight (her leaves have never scorched) and each of the branches just produced 3-5 new leaves in the last two weeks. Since she seems to be doing so well, I'm tempted to prune now and just leave her in the window with the hope that she'll start to back bud and sprout new branches off of the main trunk over the summer. The other option would be to wait until it's warm outside (late May/early June) before pruning and setting her outside in a warm, full sun situation. Any advice on when to prune and if my plan to cut all the way down to the top of the thickest part of the trunk is sound would be lovely. I'm including a few pictures so you'll have a better idea of just how leggy she's gotten.