I pruned my Kouza dogwood over the course of its first 4 years (or so) to open up the interior and remove any crossing branches. This pruning created a well shaped tree, now 20 years later. Yes, remove the lower branches so it is not bushy, if you do not want bushy. Also, envision what it will look like as it matures with the branches you have and want to keep. Remember not to remove more than 20% or the branches in any given year so as not to stress the tree. There are good resources on "young tree training/pruning" which illustrate where to make pruning cuts, shaping a tree properly. Also, prune your tree for the location (such as removing branches which may grow to touch the house).

Just went out and took a closer look at it. First, most of the leaves are green and not healthy looking - but they are on the tree. They don't look spotted or have holes, etc., just dull gray-green. However, here and there among the green ones, I saw healthy-looking shiny purple leaves with purple stems. Many of the branches have what looks like dried moss on them. And, a few little hard purple fruits! As bad as this sounds, just having leaves on the tree is an improvement over previous years. Second, the suckers look healthiest of all - big purple leaves - much bigger than the leaves on the tree. They grow out of what appear to be tree roots that are barely under the surface. This tree is in area I have just begun to tackle. Removing old landscape cloth, putting down compost, watching what reemerges (like some beautiful staghorn sumac that was somehow surviving underneath ratty looking juniper.) It would be satisfying to feel I nursed this tree back to health but don't know if it would be an exercise in futility. Don't know if it ever was healthy. There are a variety of trees on this street but this is the only crabapple. Maybe that should be a clue that this isn't the place for them!

I contacted the nursery last night, but I haven't heard from them yet. If you don't look at the ants or the bottom 4 or 5 inches of the tree, it looks pretty healthy. It seems to be spreading out. The leaves look healthy. The tree we purchased was about 8 feet tall. The bark at the bottom had a darker ring, like wet bark, from the cracked area down. That was there upon delivery. Unfortunately it was drizzling pretty hard, and they were in their truck before I got out there. It looked as though the nursery had removed soil from the container before they brought it to the house...perhaps to lighten the load. I think that the cracked area used to be under soil. Is it something that could heal over time? The warranty on the tree is for 3 months as long as I don't do the list of things on their warranty to void it. As for the "root ball", the roots were spread out although their was still some soil around the core middle part where the trunk connected to the roots. What I meant by the root ball was just the roots. They weren't pot bound or left in a ball when it was planted. I just used the term incorrectly.

Well I will show you where I thought of putting it...the small bush(baby) i circled in black is a viburnum and I can't find the information card that came with its...so idr the type of viburnum it is, so I can't figure out how big the bush will end up? And where I circled pink is where I thought about putting it...but then there is a smoke bush to the right as you can see in the second pic...I know I can move stuff around if I need to..but I wonder if I even need to because if these 2 shrubs get big enough maybe I should go with another shrub instead?? Don't forget there's a new Floribunda crab to the left of the viburnum that I planted this spring...which is said to get pretty pig as well (25'). It's the price point that tempts me lol Also I've yet to mulch my beds (bad I know, I'll do before fall I promise lol) because I finally painted my house (yay!!) and I put a new deck on...I'll post pics only because I'm in love with both the deck and my new house color lol...(also as you can see, I snuck in a new planting area at base of deck hahaha I'm addicted!!) still have to paint the trim white and finish the wood on the banister going down the stairs..but I loveeee the blue..so much better than the tired red I had ...so yeah these projects caused me to never get around to really mulching in the front beds