I have two. They sure can grow! 😎 I've had them 20 yrs. One wants to be 5ms by 5ms, but it is very near the house. It has responded very well to pruning though. This time last yr, I had it cut back by about 50%, which I knew was more than ideal but needs must. It was a little slower than normal getting going this spring, but then it took off again, with loads of new branches from the trunk and cascades of curly leaves. Truly lovely.
I am way down south with mild winters, but my experience is certainly they cope very well with even quite severe pruning.
I was a bit concerned about being so drastic, but my logic was it could not be left as it was, so either it had to come out altogether or it could be pruned and given a chance to try to regenerate. If it failed to, I had given it 20 happy yrs. As I read somewhere the average lifespan of a garden tree is 6-7 yrs, I felt it was a risk worth taking.
Two points to note. I have had lots of little suckers shoot off the rootstock, popping up all over. Maybe about 150! 😱 But these are easy to spot and snap off when a few inches tall. The other is all the bushy new growth has been attractive to pigeons, fancying it as a nesting site. I have had to stay vigilant to stop them getting started, as it is far too near the house for that sort of malarky. (I am not a fan of pigeons. Or squirrels. Or seagulls. 🤨)
I think it might be blocking a lot of light to the nearest window @Loxley, but there's also the problem with insurance companies. Something reaching a couple of metres could be considered 'a shrub', while something that size is definitely a tree. They're difficult at the best of times if there's a problem, but if you didn't state there was something that size so close to a house, they could make it even worse in the case of a claim. Of course, if you do say there's a tree within xxx metres of the property, they can turn you down or hike the premiums. No such thing as a poor insurance provider eh?
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Mine just got too big for the space and scale of the garden. When I bought it, the label (which I still have) said it grew to 1m x 1m. I now assume that that forecast assumed it would be kept in a pot. Having planted it out in a very suitable spot for a 1m x 1m plant, I soon realised this was not ideal for a plant which clearly had aspirations to be 5m x 5m. 😱
My second one is in an 18" deep raised bed with an open base. This seems to have contained its exuberance and it has been easy to keep it at about 2m x 2m.
Having said originally mine was a small tree and label implied slow growing and was twisty like corkscrew hazel. Which I had had in the past. I assumed it was similar and would make a nice little feature in the middle of my boarder out side my south facing window. Then it grew. It is lovely and shades our longe in the hot summers so the room stays cool. Also it's full of birds. Bluetits, goldfinches nuthatches robins, starlings woodpeckers great tits doves blackbirds and pigeons. Sometimes as meny as 30 birds so don't want to loose it. But yes worryingly large so close to the house.
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I am way down south with mild winters, but my experience is certainly they cope very well with even quite severe pruning.
Well chuffed!
It was pruned on 24 October. I'm in Sussex too, though on the Hampshire border. 🙂
Thank you.
I was a bit concerned about being so drastic, but my logic was it could not be left as it was, so either it had to come out altogether or it could be pruned and given a chance to try to regenerate. If it failed to, I had given it 20 happy yrs. As I read somewhere the average lifespan of a garden tree is 6-7 yrs, I felt it was a risk worth taking.
They're difficult at the best of times if there's a problem, but if you didn't state there was something that size so close to a house, they could make it even worse in the case of a claim. Of course, if you do say there's a tree within xxx metres of the property, they can turn you down or hike the premiums. No such thing as a poor insurance provider eh?
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My second one is in an 18" deep raised bed with an open base. This seems to have contained its exuberance and it has been easy to keep it at about 2m x 2m.
Sometimes as meny as 30 birds so don't want to loose it.
But yes worryingly large so close to the house.