Tell me again what these pictures mean; I forget but I do like the tree house you made.

It basically just restoring an abused Walnut. In the photo on the right, about 2/3s up in the photo, it's evident where the trunks were topped and branched into multiples.

Each year or two, a percentage of leaders needs to be removed until the tree takes on a canopy form close to what it should have looked like had it not been topped.

This was one of the most fun pruning projects of the year - the actual doing of it. The remaining potential was fairly abundant, so it was a matter of cutting and culling the crud out.

My most favorite tree of the year, is this 50' wide Mt. Fuji Cherry below. It's not a renovation - never been abused. It's a yearly project I work on. But it's a blast to prune, because 85% of the pruning can be done by walking the limbs through the canopy.

{{gwi:1186583}}

A 50' wide cherry! Awesome! Not a frilly sort of person at all, but I instantly had a vision of being dressed in a flowing summer frock having tea under that gorgeous tree. Be fun to prune, too.

Mario (and everyone else, of course!)--am evaluating a prunus mume and Prunus cerasifera--and have pretty much decided to remove them. They both have black knot--severe cases of it--and after trying to treat them as the NC State Ag people told me, have decided that they really can't be saved (at least not saved and LOOK worth a dang.) My plan was to let the plum bloom one last time (they smell so good!) and then take down the trees. My thought is that I should wait until fall, at the bare minimum, to plant new trees--do you think I should wait an additional year? I don't THINK I will be planting any further prunus varieties...although I will really miss the scent of the cerasifera...

Any advice?

melanie/can't work in my garden--so must PLAN obssessively

mjsee... On the removal - prunus tends to send up mini-trees off remaining roots at times, if the stump and main wad of roots is removed. If you can deal with it for about 5 weeks, in mid-September:

1. Cover surrounding plants if needed with tarp or plastic.
2. Spray prunus with RoundUp / few pumps / low pressure to get droplets, not mist.
3. Let it dry / pull tarp/ let it "grow" the herbicide into the entire root system.

If you can dig all the roots - no need for that. Just make the best of it until you are ready for the change.

Jill P... Too bad the photo of the Cherry doesn't enlarge here - it does on my site in Tree Advice within Advice - anyhow, my son is a little speck of a person right above the trunk.

What surprised me, was to learn that Cherry was only 25 years old. We re-measured it just last week, and it's 50 to 51 feet across.

Yes, I would love to have that tree in my yard to sit under too.

Thanks for the warning about the suckering. I'll probably paint the round-up on-I've had realy good luck with that.

LOVE that cherry, BTW. ANd I'm sure your son is quite handsome as well!

melanie