I never did follow up on how the pollarding turned out. It has been considered to be successful, by most residents of this strata [condo -- townhouse] complex, but the problem now is getting our latest landscaper not to mention landscaping representative onto the job of trimming up the resultant smaller trees again! The pollarding was a total removal of many branches to trunk level, and a shortening to a few feet of others, the shape carefully chosen by the man who did the pollarding -- now the trees have grown back into a neat well-shaped moderate shape... still a bit on the small side, with stout trunks. However, the small branches are increasing in numbers but the original landscaper has resigned, he had personal problems and went off to solve them. Now we have a guy who is an ex-golf course lawnkeeper [I didn't hire him!] who doesn't understand shrubs and trees, and I am off Council for the time being so can't really arrange the work myself... what is required is a re-trimming to make sure the small branches don't fill up the trees with excess growth. I'll try to remember to take a few pictures for you.
Thanks for that, At least it sounds like the trees survived which is my main concern, as I want to give the pollarding a go, to see if fewer branches, leaves & flowers etc will pacify the neighbours. At least for a few more years!
I thought of this thread today when cherry scout Nadia in White Rock posted a photo of an old 'Akebono' cherry tree that seems to be a victim of an attempt at pollarding at some point. http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showpost.php?p=336037&postcount=372 It looks healthy, even with all those branches, but 'Akebono' are generally beautiful graceful trees, which is not how I would describe this tree. I would never have even thought it was 'Akebono', except that the flowers look right.
OUCH, I HAVE TO AGREE WITH YOU. Well, our trees have mostly grown out of their pollarding and been trimmed selectively since, the pollarding was relatively light I guess. So they don't look too bad... the ones trimmed this way are in behind our townhouses overlooking their rear patios so had to either be made smaller or removed... no one actually wanted to spend on removal... The ones in the front were just carefully pruned to retain the size and spread and will look nice... they won't bloom until early May I guess, they are the late type, and have huge super-double blooms that are pretty spectacular. Then the condo dwellers start complaining laughingly about spent blooms littering their driveways... Nice to hear from you. I must participate again more in this forum, it was so helpful to me several years ago as I was acclimatizing myself to Pacific North West gardening! I was from Nova Scotia originally, we moved here to Saanich on Vancouver Island in 2006. In NS not too many grow cherry trees except in the Annapolis Valley in the inner-West part of NS, where it's a bit warmer and protected from harsh winds... This early spring in particular, we are feeling very lucky to be in the Pacific North West. Happy Spring!
Sounds like 'Kanzan', and they should be around three weeks early this year. A few flowers are starting to open on them already in Vancouver. Thanks for the update. Maybe you or someone would post some photos of your trees.
Will send photos shortly. The Kanzan cherries are about to come into bloom, but not quite yet... I'll send before blooming photos to show branch structure then bloom photos... we have reverted to chillier temperatures and that seemed to hold them back a bit...
@wcutler RE: post 187804 March 2009 pollarded cherry I wonder how that tree at 1st & Maple looks today in 2021
Very sorry, never did send pictures. Now in 2021 the cherries are taller, and owing to lack of funds to prune them regularly they are pretty big but not suffering from "water sprouts" from excess pollarding. Our now current landscaper is not touching the trees, they are done by a tree specialist, now and then. Trimmed a bit a year ago, but these cherries at the front gardens of the townhouses are looking unbalanced as some branches are really long on one side on many of the trees, and others were trimmed but the whole tree wasn't balanced. We have had a cold spring here in Victoria, and these Kanzan cherries are still thinking about budding. I will try to remember to send pictures when they bloom.
Here you go. It's just starting to leaf out and there are just a few tight flower buds. It looks like sweet cherry, mazzard cherry, to me, Prunus avium, and there is one branch off the trunk with open leaves that had the right leaf margins and a small white flower opening. It's time here for the mazzard cherries to start flowering. I don't see the point really.
You mean you don't see the point of pollarding? I think in a crowded townhouse complex with a very big Kanzan cherry tree dominating over someone's back patio or small front garden, and growing as tall as the house, it was an interesting experiment. We didn't pollard the ones at the front, owing to fear of creating an eyesore, just several that were experimentally done [but not as aggressively as in one or two of the photos above] in more hidden locations in someone's small rear patio. You would never know they had been pollarded, now! Other landscapers trimmed the front ones more cautiously, but because they didn't bring in the proper equipment, they never trimmed the tall tops of the trees. "Topping" was an issue that puzzled everyone, too. We didn't know, and still don't know, if it is wise or not to take off the upper tips of very tall, unbalanced branches of these trees, for example trimming off the ends of tall branches that reach up just on one side, making the tree look very uneven. Yes or No? Please someone give us some advice on this ! The slight pruning we did do tried removing a few big branches completely, that seemed to work. These trees are gorgeous when they bloom, but so are the smaller more dwarf types which would b more suited to our townhouse complex. Several of the Kanzans out in the open lawn area would be lovely. One other problem with them though, is that moth worms love the leaves, and by mid-summer many of these trees' leaves are badly eaten, and a preventative program of the Fall sticky-tape application around the trunks is not done unless an individual townhouse owner tries it. I think it helped, and I will use it again this year.
It must so beautiful where you are today — I used to live where we had fantastic views of stunning Mt Baker over in WA State —— I know it would help me and perhaps others who are far more advice-worthy than I am to see some pictures If you or another on your strata have a smart phone - just click some pix and post on this thread. the moderators are very helpful in that regard (the picture posting). ——- I do wonder about the particular tree (above) at approx 1st and Maple in Kits (Vanc) - for me I agree w WCutler because that tree, it looks sad however I have not viewed in person recently - I expect it’s another case of good intentions, tempting choice, wrong place perhaps before any of the individual residents moved in The other thing I wonder in bigger macro realm in local bylaws like Vanc and other communities - is there a disconnect between what professional architects et al know will outgrow and possibly compromise the building and service wires / pipes VERSUS what the landscaper truck plants in new or reno lots or public roadway margins for that matter - AND - the official list fr the Building Approval Office at, for example, city of Vanc In a distant past - my experience is in order to get a permit for a multi-building, obviously all plans are submitted INCL landscape incl plant specs and ground materials (bark mulch etc) - So it can get complex for all parties (local govt officials to strata to individual owners) Hère are examples fr Vanc so if your strata decides to remove existing - it would be wise in my opinion to consult your local city hall (whatever jurisdiction your complex is located in) to ascertain replacement requirement if any https://www.cityofvancouver.us/site...c_works/page/1741/streettreeselectionlist.pdf - https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/replacement-trees-instructions.pdf If you can get some pictures that would be great.
Thanks, I will ! Kind of a busy day, but will take some pics to show the branches as mentioned above; later, when the blossoms come out I will send pictures then, too.
Here are two townhouses in our condominium... the one on the right is mine. You will see how tall and uneven the Kanzan cherries are! Sorry, took photos when a bit too dark outside. The one on the left is the tall unleafed-out cherry standing against the sky above the unit. Does this illustrate what I was saying about them? (You will note the large typically Pacific West Coast "forest" beside the unit... Saanich won't let us trim that substantially).
I'm not too big on evenness, myself, particularly to the extremes people go with it. Is it the case that you pollarded it once, and then not again? It looks like on the tree I posted, people have kept it up every year, so that at blooming time, there aren't any branches yet. In case people don't know how to zoom in on these, when you open them, you can click the up-slanted arrow at the upper right, then mouse over the photo, at which point your pointer becomes a magnifier, so you can click the photo to enlarge it. This is probably irrelevant on a phone - I assume you can just zoom in.
The two trees above were never pollarded, but were trimmed a bit from below. We did not want to try pollarding ones at the front of the townhouses. I posted these to point out an unbalanced trim. The formerly-pollarded ones I will have to try photographing with permissiom from unit owners, it may take time as the trees are in their back patios. Those cherries look fuller and a bit less tall and more "even"... they were never pollarded heavily, only sort of half-way pollarded, then trimmed to remove overgrowth, but all that in the past when I first mentioned it. I would say it was successful.
By the way, thanks for the info on how to expand the photos. I did not notice that prior to reading your post, wcutler.
To those who wanted pictures... the top one is a formerly partially-pollarded Kanzan cherry, not particularly attractive, but I doubt the tree was ever fertilized. The middle one is the Kanzan in my front garden... I fertilize the garden. Note the long branch at one side I would like nipped back. The bottom one are our units 4 and 5 trees in the section of our 27-unit complex I live in. Blooms are starting nicely up around me.
I really meant I don't see the point to keep to the pollarding regime, where the new growth is removed every year, which is what this building has been doing, assuming there has been growth every year. I never actually check that. The trees bloom before the branches have formed, so you get what looks almost like a cauliflorous tree, with the flowers up against the trunk.
That is odd, that extreme pollarding. I must confess I too dislike it, it was an experiment we tried with "light" pollarding, but even that did not work out well as seen in one of the earlier photos I showed. This photo shows the Kanzan cherry, again, in front of my townhouse. This Kanzan was never pollarded, but occasionally trimmed. The person's phone taking the photo gives it more colour mid-day than my earlier photo in this thread. The tree is as it was meant to be; it seems to be an excellent spring, this spring, for blooms. I would like one long side branch trimmed to give the tree more perfect balance, but it is fine the way it is. I think the Kanzans should be trimmed somewhat, now and then, but not pollarded.