questions: foxgloves & trident maples

15 years ago

Hello all, I am mosty a lurker but always appreciate the very helpful and cheerful advice I get when I do post! I have two more questions:

First - I planted foxgloves for the first time this year - last fall actually. I was so happy with how they came up and performed. However, they have basically petered out now - a few small flower stalks but that's it. I know they are biennials, so I there's no point in keeping the plant anymore, right? I guess I'm just having a hard time pulling up a perfectly healthy plant -- I keep hoping it will just decide to be a perennial and bloom for me next year! So, I need to pull it up, right?

Second, We planted 4 Trident Maples in the strip between our sidewalk and the road in the fall of 06. When we had the frost last spring (as they budded out the first time) - they got nipped pretty hard, and then the drought last year was rough on them - we used gator bags and helped them limp through. This year 2 of them (one especially) have lots of long branches with no leaves or twigs from the trunk up to the tips,and only leaves on the ends. They are fairly full and look otherwise healthy, but the leaves on the ends make if these branches droop - it almost looks like a weeping tree. I'd say about 25% of the branches look like this. The rest are fine. I'm just wondering - will they eventualy recover? Will these branches ever look normal? Is there any way to prune them so they look better?

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions -

Tina

Comments (2)

brandon7 TN_zone7
15 years ago
When you say the foxgloves have "petered out", I'll assume you mean they have stopped flowering. Some foxgloves are biennials and some are short lived perennials. Also, some biennials can actually live for three or more years. If the variety you have is biennial and the plants have set seed fairly heavily, then they probably will die soon. It's hard to predict without knowing what variety you have. If your plants look healthy, just leave them there for now and see what happens. It's too hot right now to plant much in their place anyway.

How big are your maples? Are the branches that are drooping permanent branches or lower than the branches you want to keep when the tree matures? Have you got pictures? Without more information, I can't say for sure what I would do, but right now, I'm leaning more towards leaving them alone and letting the tree do what trees do naturally. It sounds like drop-crotch pruning is not an option anyway since foliage is only present at the tip of each main branch.
tcahalan
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks so much for your response. Sorry for my delay - we were travelling and then I had to figure out how to upload a picture. I'v left the foxgloves and I'll just see what happens.

Re: the Trident Maples -- Here are a few pictures. I'm sorry they're not better -- you may have to squint! And there's a small crab apple that partially obscures the view. If these don't work, let me know and I'll try to take some more.
This first one is the worst one.

This shows a similar tree that we put in at the same time, same conditions.

And this is a side-by-side comparison - you can really see the difference between the two here.

Thanks so much for any ideas/thoughts!
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