Ilex - Pruning

[s.valente]

Hi.

I have an Ilex and I want to prune it and give it a new shape this year.

The photos below were taken last year. From then, I pruned it a bit and now it doesn't have as much leaves and branches as it had. It was a light maintenance pruning.

Even so, I think that it looks very "bushy" mainly on that right branch. I want to give it some more character.

On the other hand, I am afraid of cutting what is now a very dense branch (the right one I referred).

Any thoughts on this?

Thank you.

Photos:

 

[sorce]

I would wire out that right trunks foilage and see if it would look good with the other 2 cut off.

The foilage on these is just a little too different to be ONE. IMO.

Using RIGHT as front with the tree tilted back about 30 degrees.

Sorce

 

[jk_lewis]

Before you do anything else, thin out that heavy side to about the same density as the foliage in the other side of the tree. Then you can see what you have. The over-all tree has a nice shape already w/o any drastic pruning. I certainly would not remove any of the larger branches. This is probably I. crenata. The branches have a VERY long memory and don't hold shape well after wiring, so you may have to leave the wires on for longer than you'd like. Use larger wires so it doesn't cut into the bark quite as much.

 

[s.valente]

Thank you for your replies.

I will thin the big branch and see what it looks like. Maybe a little tilting but for now I will not do anything drastic.

Cheers!

 

[s.valente]

In the meanwhile, some updates:

Any thoughts?

 

[Paradox]

If it were mine, I probably would cut the left branch off at some point. The right one is thicker but has nice taper to the branches. The ramification is nice on that side. Right, now it looks like a lopsided 'Y' to me. I wouldnt do it now though, Id let it recover from what you just did to it.

 

[s.valente]

Thank you, Paradox.