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How to prune an overgrown gold thread falsecypress to open up the view

2 years ago

I have a beautiful 10+ ft. gold thread that completely blocks my front windows. Is it possible to prune it in a more Asian style to open up the view? Like you would create spaces between branches on a bonsai tree. There are 4 main trunks, which makes heavy pruning seem much more complicated. I hate to just cut down such a healthy tree, but it’s too big to replant somewhere else.

Featured Answer

Christopher CNC

2 years ago

Yes you most certainly may prune the Gold Thread Chamaecyparis in a more Asian style to open up the view from your window and of the house. You can turn it into more of a focal point instead of a big yellow blob blocking the window. Just doing it will make people talk. Do it well and it will be the talk of the neighborhood. Niwaki or Cloud pruning is your pruning concept. Google that for pictures, though you are not likely to see many Gold Thread Niwaki.

To start you want to get inside the tree, follow the main stems and trunks and start cutting off all the smaller side branches to expose the larger main stems and the trunks. You want to find the trees bone structure. Once that is done step back for a good look - it is going to be a shock initially - and decide what main branches you may want to eliminate to further enhance the open tree form. This is going to have to be your aesthetic decision. This is also going to be a training process and your first session is just the beginning. It may take a few years to get to the talk of the neighborhood. Bondage to get the form you want is optional.

I went Niwaki on my Gold Mop Chamaecyparis when they were six years old and had reached the height I was willing to let them have. They started as one gallon puff balls and were left to grow unmolested for the first six years and are now in training session year four. I prune them once a year at the end of winter. Mostly I am letting their natural growth form be my guide. It is going to take some time for the overall conical shape to dissipate. My clouds are coming along nicely.

This is a picture from today.

I wanted to open my view as well while maintaining some screening from the rubberneckers along the scenic byway. I can hide on my front porch.

Here they are this spring with the Fothergilla in bloom before the flowers got froze.

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Comments (9)

Embothrium
2 years ago
It's still going to be in front of the window. Only you'll be looking out the window at a specimen that is no longer nice and full.
HU-512089323 thanked Embothrium
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btydrvn
2 years ago
I like the idea..of pruning...but it will take an artist...
HU-512089323 thanked btydrvn
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 years ago
i would get rid of it ... its a giant tree planted way to close to the house.. with no perception of its huge potential ... so it has to go ...

that said.. it doesnt have to go right now ..

why not live your topiary type dreams.. and just go at it .. worse that can happen is it only looks worse.. and you speed up the time line above ... lol

buy a good pair of hand shears .... it really matters on a job like this.. and a folding tree saw ... and go at it ...

but keep in mind.. you can always take more off later.. but you cant glue them back on ...

i presume the back side is nearly bare.. or thinner.. to give you an idea of the interior structure ... set a chair back there .. sit there for a while ... and just start .. in your mind... tracing branches and what not ... to see where to cut ...

make it a 3 year project .. taking a little at a time .. rather than just going at it and thinking you can do this in one fell swoop ... maybe you could if you had a decade of experience.. but ... well.. you know ...

now ... go for it ...

keep us posted ...

ken
HU-512089323 thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
Sara Malone Zone 9b
2 years ago
It absolutely can be done. But it takes a LOT Of work, really needs someone who knows what he's doing, and will have to be maintained yearly at the very least. I have an aesthetic pruning guild come to my garden twice a year and it took about three pruners all day to do one that is significantly smaller than yours. But also as noted - if you are going to take it out, first try your hand at pruning it. You won't have anything to lose.
HU-512089323 thanked Sara Malone Zone 9b
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
"i would get rid of it ... its a giant tree planted way to close to the house.. with no perception of its huge potential ... so it has to go ..."

A) It is NOT a giant!! At most, it may get as large as 8-10' tall but that is over decades, not just years. "Huge potential" is a bit overstated :-)

B) And "way too close" is a matter of opinion :-) As it slowly grows to a very modest height, it also develops a moderate spread but nothing overwhelming and certainly non-threatening to the house or foundation!

As a dwarfish, small conifer with an amenable growth habit, this tree lends itself supremely to niwaki or cloud pruning that could turn it into a show-stopping front yard specimen.
HU-512089323 thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
These chaps could do it, I’m sure 😉

Tbh I really dislike cloud pruning. There’s a bit if a fad for it here at the moment and I find it competely at odds with our landscape. While I admired the effort that went into the Japanese gardens I saw, I really wanted them to just leave those poor trees in peace and stop torturing them. Three men versus one poor little Pine?
HU-512089323 thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
Embothrium
2 years ago
In Christopher's first shot particularly - which serves to illustrate what I was talking about exactly - the dominant result of the thinning of the tree is that neither the house or the tree shows well as a result. A body still can't look out the window and not have to peer through a tree to see beyond. And looking at the tree from the direction the photo was taken the house - and all its own details, including the railing - shows up as a competing, visually distractive element rather than a quiet backdrop for the tree. To produce a cluttered aspect.

And of course with the tree having been thinned enough to be see through it was given a gaunt appearance - notice in floral's picture how much bigger and broader the areas of foliage are.
HU-512089323 thanked Embothrium
Christopher CNC
2 years ago
It's a process Embothrium. I do not have a magic Niwaki wand. Surely you are not under the impression those three gentlemen created that tree form in one sitting.

And not to worry I can see out the window and from the front porch just fine since the land rises significantly from my viewing perch.

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