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Help !!! -Japanese Umbrella Pine(Sciadopitys verticillata

marilyninconnecticut

15 years ago

Help!! My husband pruned the tip of my Japanese Umbrella Pine as he claims he didn't realize it was a tree! It was about 6 ft. tall with a beautiful shape - perfectly conical. Now, it's a little over 5 ft. tall and missing it's tip - it's a little rounded at the top. What will become of it - will it eventually regain it's pretty shape? I was so depressed over this as I love this tree!

Thanks, Marilyn

Featured Answer

tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱

3 years ago

Best to start a new thread and include pix.

tj

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Comments (8)

eukaryote
15 years ago
Sorry to hear about your Sciadopitys, that would really bite, especially on a nice six foot specimen. My partner got careless with the weed-whacker this summer around mine, and I wasn't too pleased, but that was just minor damage. I'm not an expert, but I would imagine that it will grow another leader eventually. It will probably take a while before it has a nice pyramidal shape again though.
User
15 years ago
Marilyninconn,
I'm sorry to hear about your unbrella pine.
It will take years and years for the tree to correct itself.
THat is exactly why my hubby isn't allowed to touch anything in my garden.
He isn't allowed to touch the weed whacker either.
I always wanted an unbrella pine, but couldn't afford a tree of any height at all, so I give up on the idea.
The next time you buy an expensive plant or shrub or tree, tell him the price right before you plant it.
Tell him, so don't touch it.
Hope it grows back for you!
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amccour- Hi. out of curiosity I went to weather.com and looked at your temps for the month of January in Lima. It looks like it was colder than you thought! :) Officially, Lima had one night at -16F, followed by -10F and -9F. There were about 3-5 other nights that hovered between 0 and -5F. That's only slightly colder than what we had here in Cleveland and a solid zone 5 winter, which we have not seen for 15 years. If your umbrella pine was newly planted or under stress it is very likely it could have burned. I've seen them burn before, especially after a few winters similar to this in the 1980's. But, I promise you all the ones I saw burn in the 1980's refoliated. As I said before the yellow tissue always burns a bit on my variegated Sciadopitys, but it always pushes new growth and I swear I cant tell the difference by June. It does help to keep them out of strong winter wind and sun, but I would think that as they age and have a more developed root system they might tolerate cold a bit better. I do know that Sciadopitys do not like a lot of water and I know western Ohio was plagued with floods this summer so possibly the plant was under stress??? Good drainage, or planting on a slope is very imporant, from my own experience. Yes there are some sprays out there (anti-dessicants), but I've never used them on conifers before, in that I've read it will often dull the color for the winter especially on anything blue. They work great on broadleaved evergreens like Magnolia and Holly and might add a few degrees of tolerance, but I don't know what the sprays are like on conifers? Sorry. But to answer your question without rambling more, yes I would expect those small buds in the browned foliage to replace whatever is damaged. Sometimes I use my nails and I scratch just a VERY tiny bit of tissue off a stem to see if there is green underneath. If its green you should be good to go. Good luck.
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pineresin
15 years ago
It will produce one or more new leaders. The important thing is to select a single leader in a couple of years, and prune the others out, so you don't get a forked tree. I've seen this happen over here with one that lost its top in a storm several years ago, it produced several leaders which then started breaking off in subsequent storms.

Resin
amccour
15 years ago
I still don't understand the logic of, "Look, a plant! I must cut various parts off of it for reasons I can't really explain!" I don't think I'm alone when I say that I find yews a lot more attractive, for instance, when they're not box-shaped.
egardner4_yahoo_com
13 years ago
A ex-neighbor of mine has what I swear is a Japanese umbrella pine but it's not conical at all. It's about 4-5' tall and about 6' wide and very open -- not dense at all. I find it quite beautiful and would love to replicate it in my garden. It must be heavily pruned but when I questioned the owner about it she seemed totally clueless. She's the only person I've seen tending the yard so I'm pretty sure she doesn't have someone else pruning and training the specimen. I was told at one garden center that there are both tree and shrub versions of the Japanese Umbrella Pine but I can find no evidence of this in my online searching. I've moved away from the neighborhood but if I ever get back there I will take a photo and post it. I would appreciate any information that might help me identify this shrub on the chance that it is not an umbrella pine.
gmdoctorg
12 years ago
My Japanese Umbrella Pine is about 11' high made up of five main trunks. In May I lost one of the trunks and now I am losing another. It has bin in this location for 12 or more years. When we have a really heavy rain it does puddle around on both sides. It starts out browning until that whole trunk is dead. What may be the problem? Do I need to grade the water away or is it something else? Is there any thing I can do now to save this trunk?

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dankhara
3 years ago
I need help with my Japanese umbrella tree. I have it in a pot and it has grown a lot in 3 years, but the branches are leggy. And not dense at all. They are long thin branches with needles at the end. Is it possible to prune it back? Will it grow more branches? Or it's a lost cause?

Thank you for your help.

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