the other after I cut the you know what out of it.

===>>> lol ...stuff as you say.. happens .. lol ..

as for the marriage ... well ... wrong forum ... lol ..

nothing dies from pruning alone.. your response re: the prior pruning is spot on ...

the one thing i would have done ... and cant tell from the pix ... is that i would have cut further back.. just beyond the prior wounds ... so we have the same amount of wounds ... not doubling them ... damage can start as old wounds decay.. and not proper heal ... so why leave them there ...

other than that.. its a crab ... not easy to kill .. and it looks like you have plenty of space for others .. if she is really bent out of shape.. suggest you plant two more.. so when this one dies ... the new ones are already going for the gold ...

good luck with the marriage ... lol..

ken

ps: im not sure i would have 'topped' the tree like this ... but you didnt ask about that ... regardless... you appear to have had fun.. now good luck getting rid of all the waste ... [ever notice.. the pruning is the easy part of the job.. its the cleaning up that is the PIA ...]

btw: if you go for other trees.. pick one that stay smaller.. so you dont have to do this .. or go with shrubs pruned into tree shape.. which gives you one more reason to go at them with your saw ...

You are pruning too much.

As far as I’m aware ornamental crab apples don’t need pruning at all apart from removing dead or crossing/rubbing branches. The tree in the second picture shows long straight growths resulting from having been well nigh pollarded in the past. You haven’t killed your tree but imo you have, unfortunately, spoiled it.

Well if you like the grown tree by definition I haven't spoiled it as it's the exact same prune I did 5 years

Another "Homer Simpson" type of post, we see more and more of these here. Chris Cervino didn't say so but we can assume this is an ornamental crab, right? These crabs have only one reason for their existence, their flowers. My question for OP, how many flowers will you see next spring? Exactly what kind of guiding principles are being used to make the pruning cuts? Would I be right if I guessed OP polished off a six pack or two before butchering the tree?

What a foolish response. I'll thank those of you who didn't needlessly cite immature cartoon characters and actually attempted to answer the actual question. The flowers were noon existent this year and were much better after a similar prune 5 years ago but thanks for playing.

D'oh!

‘Well if you like the grown tree by definition I haven't spoiled it...’.

If you like .... Obviously it's not my tree but I would like it better if it had been left in peace. Imo it has been spoiled because one can see exactly where it was lopped back five years ago and where the long straight new growth shot up the following year. A naturally shaped ornamental crab doesn't have that obvious visible line through the canopy which breaks up the branching structure. There’s nothing to be done now but the trees would look far more attractive without any further cutting so they can resume their natural growth pattern. Why chop it off and wait five years for recovery when if it had been left alone it would have been beautiful every year? Tell your wife you’ll leave them alone from now on and in a few years they will have recovered sufficiently to hide the damage to the structure, in the summer at least. But sadly you’ve lost next spring’s bloom display. Maybe buy another one for her to enjoy next year as a peace offering? Or a different ornamental tree? You have plenty of space.

Yep: as stated previously you are almost pollarding it as though long straight flowerless shoots were the objective. Other than that it does not look particularly like a crab apple in these two pictures so I wonder if it is actually another kind of tree - it is impossible to tell without closer views being provided. Ones where the leaves and buds can be seen well.

It's a pity pruning tools are sold without some sort of compulsory class or 'pruning license' that certifies one knows what one is doing before being allowed to purchase them in the first place. More plant butchery is performed under the guise of 'pruning' than any other horticultural practice I can think of!

Lololol

I’m curious if floral, embo and gg would approve of pollarding these (maybe taking it down more) if the op commits to doing it yearly? That is, can pollarding ever be attractive? I’m asking because I did the same thing to a Rose of Sharon that had outgrown its space and am on the fence about whether to just get rid of it or attempt a better job.. Not trying to hijack the post but get a better idea of if this severe pruning can be done attractively.

kitasei2, ROS blooms on current season wood, crabapple last year's wood, BIG difference.

A full on pollarded tree consists of a stump of some height with straight branches coming out of the top which are cut all the way back to the top of the stump every year. Frequently and repeatedly forcing most kinds of trees to replace entire sets of branches wears them out. So that successful undertaking of the practice is limited to unusually tolerant kinds like catalpas and planes (Platanus).

Once established Hibiscus syriacus can be cut down low every spring to grow back and flower on the current year's stems. The appeal of this approach is to keep the shrub smaller and neater than it would be if allowed to grow to full height. And because the operation is hard pruning back of a multi stem shrub and not the complete elimination of branches from a single stemmed tree it is not pollarding.

OMG.. its his tree .. he can do anything that pleases him with it.. including making love to it.. as long as his wife doesnt catch him doing it ... nor the neighbors ...

whether or not other like what he did.. what difference does it make ... he is happy ...

sometimes the best answer.. is the one left unsaid ... its rather hard to do ... but its a sign of character ...

ken

Of course, Ken, but we’re all here to learn, and thanks to Embo I just learned something important!

Ken, I did open myself to feedback. That said, I'm not wining and dining those particular ornamental anytime soon