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| I can't believe I did this... I was pruning a 4-5 year old serviceberry to make it less bushy and more tree like. I removed a couple of stems from the base and a bunch of lower limbs. No problem so far. all was well.
THen I walked around the corner and saw another bush covered with aphids. As I was working on the aphids I remembered that that was the serviceberry!!! the pruned shrub was really a winterberry, Ilex verticillata, 'Berry Heavy' Oh-oh... Will the winterberry bush out again? I remember now that I put the serviceberry in a location where I wanted it to be bushy. THe winterberry was planted too close to its neighbor, Hydrangea Little Lamb. Lamb is getting big and I was looking for a solution to avoid moving the serviceberry/winterberry. I thought tree-like was a good idea. Too bad it was the wrong plant.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Fri, Jun 3, 11 at 9:38
| welllll ... you sure taught that ilex a lesson ... ha.. who's in charge now .... anyway.. its a shrub.. why do you think pruning will destroy it ... now.. how about some labels.. lol ... ken |
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- Posted by mustard_seeds 4 -Onalaska Wisconsi (My Page) on Fri, Jun 3, 11 at 9:48
| Winterberry can handle a strong rejuvenation pruning (normally 1/3-ish, you know, but I bet it will survive with the tree like pruning and send out new bush growth) Make sure it gets adequate water if you have drought conditions this summer. You'll still get some berries this year from the upper part of the "tree" and then next year your beautiful berries will flourish again. Once it bushes up again, you might prune off the "tree" branches toward the ground to make it more uniform as a bush. -Rachel |
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| Maybe I should prune the top now to force new lower branches from those stems???? |
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