I lifted this Chinese privet, Ligustrum sinense, in Winter 2019. Here is it in late March, just pushing new shoots.
Here we are, two and a half months later. Privet is very vigorous. You literally can’t take your eyes off them for long.
Time for a taming. First the long, long shoots get pruned back.
More pruning, especially the conflicting branches on the inside of the tree. I’ve got that third trunk down to a single leader … and, I’m not sure that trunk does anything for the composition.
There, that’s better.
Working our way up. That left-hand trunk ended up with only its new leader, and that’s where all of the new growth is needed.
On to the right-hand trunk. This one has some branches to work with.
And a few minutes later, we’ve got our initial design. The tree will push lots of new buds in the next week, so it will flush out again by early July. I’ll post updates, unless of course someone wants to take over. This tree is available at our Chinese Privet sale page.
That’s quite a haircut! Looks better. And leaves so much potential.
Thank you, Sue.