collected crabapple

[catfish chapstick]

In spring of 2009 I came across this crabapple growing wild near a creek on some undeveloped land in northern kentucky.
This photo was taken the the day it was collected.

[catfish chapstick]

here is a photo or the same plant as it began to leaf.
You can see here that the branches go crazy.

[catfish chapstick]

Not too sure what to do with this thing except reduce it. Now, I'm aware that many people would have probably trunk-chopped to a stump to build the tree up however after I examined the base of the trunk I decided that would not be my first choice. You see, the base of the tree is awkward and bulgy with hints of reverse taper throughout. A shorter tree will only make those flaws stand out more. Furthermore tree's flowers/fruits will be a little more in scale.

Here is the base

[catfish chapstick]

So I can always use trunk-chop as a last resort. I reduced the tree to a trunkline and pulled some branches down to imply gravity (no I don't plan on designing a pine) and adjusted the angle a little. I think the tree still needs to change its angle but I'm still undecided.

Here are some different angles of the tree today.

[catfish chapstick]

Here is one more.

[HotAction]

I like #3 and #4 nice movement.

[ghues]

# 1 and #4 have graceful movement, a nice find. Good luck with it.
G

[Attila Soos]

Originally Posted by catfish chapstick

Here are some different angles of the tree today.

Remember that if you want, you can design your tree so that the tree can be viewed from multiple angles. As time goes by, you can then decide wich one you want to go with. Or you can plant it in a hexagonal or round pot and view it from all angles, if that's what you want.

[catfish chapstick]

here's an update. i'd like to just let it fill out and see it flower and fruit.

Attila- i was thinking the same thing.

will it be better off to stay in the large pot it's currently in? it puts on a lot of growth which i suppose is due to the large pot its in. i'm not planting it in the ground because the aphids will feast

also i'm struggling to think what pot would eventually look best with it.

[Brian Van Fleet]

Great selection of trunk-line from the collected tangle! I think I like the reverse to this most recent photo, or #4 from above. Here is a nice Sara Rayner pot that would be a good compliment:
http://www.redwing.net/~daalms/8r.html