Help with Evergreen..maybe dumb question

[Jeekinz]

The tree in question was originally a Christmas Tree my mother and I planted around 1980. You can see the trunk in the photo, it now stands about 35' tall. A few years back, her husband got a little excited with his new pole saw and trimmed the crap out of the lower branches. I recently bought the house from her and can't decide what to to with this tree.

1. Can you promote new limb growth somehow to replace the missing branches?

2. The tree (as you can imagine) is now oversized for the yard, I can barely keep the lawn in good shape and when I get sun, it's only for a few hours in the afternoon. I have a row of arborvitaes that dont get sun anymore, and the flowering cherry is growing into the X-mas tree. Should I remove the evergreen?

3. If removing is the way to proceed, would someone/company be interested in transplanting it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[tree_beard]

very unlikely anyone will want to transplant such a big/common tree im afraid, though i realise how hard it is to chop down a tree that you have an emotional/memorial investment in.

if there is room to fell it whole then i say wait til xmas and donate it to a small town/school/church etc then you could probably get them to organise the removal in exchange for the tree.

maybe...


would work in my area

 

[DGG]

It looks like there is room to cut down the tree but you might want to keep it and replace the grass with nice ground cover. Your garden looks great! Maybe you could drop a coin in the wishing well and wish the tree to disappear?

Folks forget how big trees grow to and plant too many or too close to things. Your tree looks nice an healthy in the picture. You must be treating it okay.

As much as I hate topping/hat racking, this may be another alternative. It really looks goofy though to see a big trunk and a little puff of foliage at the top. However it does reduce the size and open the ground around it to more sunlight.

Have fun!

 

[smokechase II]

this is going to hurt

You may want to "trim" the Cherry way back every few years, (to get sun in where you want it), and remove the Xmas Tree.

Mostly you're going to need to work through your problems with your Father-by-law. Perhaps get him some lawn shears and discretely dull his saw.

 

[Adkpk]

First of all Jeekins what part of Joisey you from?
Nice looking yard. Looks like your Mom was an avid gardener.
I would take that tree down, they get much bigger. I myself would prefer the shade but if your looking to preserve your Moms hard work that spruce would be the one to lose.
If I may indulge( getting antsy to get back to work I guess) a dogwood or an eastern red bud would be nice in the bed to the right. Something to balance out the yard. If you pruned the cherry back a bit a nice size redbud would catch up it in no time.
Good luck and post pics if you take it down.

 

[Jeekinz]

Thanks alot for all your help! One person hit it on the head "they only get bigger". I'll take a couple more photos and post them tomorrow. That way you can really see the issue. Again...thank you. -J

 

[Jeekinz]

Here are a couple pics. It's hard to tell this time of year, but the cherry has grown into the evergreen. My yard is only 40' wide, the photos are facing to the west/south west.

 

[diltree]

Unfortunately there will not be any regrowth on your evergreen, those branches are gone forever. Like some one said: that tree is only going to get bigger, and considering the dimensions of your yard this may be a situation where I would recommend removal!

 

[Newt*]

One other thought here. If you continually prune the cherry to 'keep it in bounds' you will eventually have many water sprouts and the cherry will become unsightly and need to be removed as well.

Newt

 

[Jeekinz]

I think I would remove the Evergreen before I trimmed the cherry. That tree is so beautiful when it's in bloom. Thanks.

 

[habanero]

Here's a stupid idea: get the tree cut down, find someone with a mill, have said tree milled into some lumber, build something nice from the lumber. Sentimentality is preserved by keeping the item you built from the lumber and tree is no longer a problem in the yard. Problem solved...

 

[Jeekinz]

Not so stupid. I have a 20" Echo and a woodshop similar to Norm's.....I like it.

 

[pbtree]

I vote for removal...

 

[treeseer]

What species is the tree? Ya gotta know what you got before you can know what to do with it.
Your questions:

1 No

2 Not Necessarily

3 No

treebeard and habanero have good ideas--you could do both!

I would try keeping the tree--a spruce?--and prune it back to a tight form, using a pole pruner. But then I love to prune trees in different ways. Your call.

 

[Ed Roland]

Looks to be a Norway Spruce.

Those limbs are gone forever. This tree is only a quarter the size it could potentially reach. This is a very easy removal for a certified arborist. Please dont try to top this thing. Topping destroys trees and we NO LONGER DO IT. Besides topping an evergreen would truly create a hatrack.

 

[antigrassguy]

I would continue to raise the lower canopy. Looks like from the photos that 2 or 3 more tiers could be removed. If you remove the whole tree you will have a wonderful view of your neighbors homes from your deck instead of green foliage AND they will be able to watch you on your deck as well. Try to imagine the view without the canopy there, when making your decision, and ask your self if you want to see what this tree now blocks. As for the cherry I would prune/shape it to promote a denser form. I would then start on planting shade/acidic loving plants with the idea that someday you will have a nice cool shade garden/yard.

 

[Jeekinz]

Thanks to everyone for all their input.

Saturday is the day I'll be removing the spruce. The tree is just too big and it's right smack in the middle of my yard. I have a terrible time with the lawn and my veggies and herbs are getting deprived of sunlight.

I'll take some pics.

 

[Adkpk]

Thanks to everyone for all their input.

Saturday is the day I'll be removing the spruce. The tree is just too big and it's right smack in the middle of my yard. I have a terrible time with the lawn and my veggies and herbs are getting deprived of sunlight.

I'll take some pics.

opcorn:

 

[Ekka]

Thanks to everyone for all their input.

Saturday is the day I'll be removing the spruce. The tree is just too big and it's right smack in the middle of my yard. I have a terrible time with the lawn and my veggies and herbs are getting deprived of sunlight.

I'll take some pics.

Good on ya, I was hoping you'd whack that tree. :hmm3grin2orange: I aint ever seen a dwarf one of them but I sure seen some doozies. It's about right tree right spot. Over here we get lots of people plant ficus trees into their gardens after having them inside as topiaries ... they go nuts and grow huge, not everything sentimental is logical.

 

[Jeekinz]

As promosed

This was my Saturday project. I started at 8:30am and finished at 2pm. I would have finished earlier, but my saw was acting up. Sooo.....

The tree was about 50-55' tall. I climbed up and tied a line to remove the first section. I remember as a kid doing this and not having a problem with it. ????

I climbed back up with a bow saw and started cutting until I head the first "crack" then got my a$$ back down to yank on the rope....Success!

The second section was approached the same way. However, the only casualty was a couple branches on my cherry tree...

Since my yard is pretty small, I used the rope to measure where the bottom section would reach, so I knew where to make my cut. This section was a little difficult because the tree was leaning opposite where I wanted it to land...

Success again!.............

And more clean-up begins....

No more tree. I know, I know...you can see the dump behind me, but now those arborvitaes will get some sun along with everything else I'm trying to grow. Next is renting a stump grinder to take care of the spruce and a maple I took down last year.