Pruning
Trees
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Many garden trees are found in the wild as
shrubs, or as trees with more than one trunk. In a garden, many of them -
especially those with attractive bark - are attractive to grow with several
trunks.
If you are unable to find trees
already grown as multi-trunked specimens, you can still develop your own. Buy
very young trees, preferably those which have not yet produced side branches.
(In the trade, these are known as 'whips').
Step: 1 Plant
your whips (they'll be much cheaper to buy than standard trees) in good soil
and pinch out the top shoot.
Step: 2 When a
number of side shoots emerge, allow 3, 5 or 7 of these to develop and pinch out
the rest. Odd numbers look more natural than even!
Step: 3 Prevent other side shoots from developing
until these main limbs have matured. They will tend to grow outwards, away from
one another naturally, but you will need to remove any inward-growing stems.
An alternative to multi-trunked trees is to select three
specimens, and plant them very close together, staking them securely but
arranging them with the stems leaning slightly outwards. Silver birches adapt
well to this treatment.
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