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Tree IDs please

Super gardenerSuper gardener Posts: 106
in Plants
Can anyone tell me what these two trees are please and whether I can prune them now without damaging them too much? Very overgrown - daughter rents property and they’ve been somewhat neglected, just needing to reduce their height a bit.






Posts

  • cmarkrcmarkr Posts: 142
    Second is a birch
  • cmarkrcmarkr Posts: 142
    You can top birches and they'll continue to grow with a new leader. They don't look at good though
  • BorderlineBorderline Posts: 4,700
    I reckon the top photo is some sort of variegated Forsythia. They can be cut back now if you wish. 

    The second photo looks more like a Cherry tree to me. There are so many, so difficult to pin down to a specific one. If you need to control its size, best do so now up to autumn. Best to prune back carefully to get a balanced shape rather than give the whole tree a general drastic cut back. 
  • thevictorianthevictorian Posts: 1,279
    I agree the second looks like a cherry and I think the first might be a cornus alba dogwood. Cherries need to be pruned before winter as they can get diseases if the cuts haven't had time to heal properly. 
    If it is a cornus then you can prune it anytime but normally they are cut back in the spring as the new growth provides the best autumn colour.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    The other problem with pruning cherries and other prunus is that it can trigger suckering growth to spring up from the roots, sometimes some distance away from the tree itself ... so it's good to be aware of that ... hopefully gentle reshaping rather than being too radical won't cause too much of a problem.  

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • Super gardenerSuper gardener Posts: 106
    Thanks all for this, I feel more confident now about giving them a general prune. 👍😀
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    A view of the whole plant/tree  as well as the leaves would help.
  • Super gardenerSuper gardener Posts: 106
    It’s such a congested area I couldn’t get a meaningful pic of the trees in their entirety.  Basically conifers, these trees and an acer have been planted in a tiny area then left for years and all grown into each other.  Will give them all a good trim and see if that improves things a bit.  If daughter were likely to be there any length of time some would need removing and soil conditioned as extremely dry.
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