Nick Bailey inspires us to reinvent trees and shrubs
A bit of a makeover will bring a lush, verdant feel to your garden
We’re on the brink of spring and as the days get longer woody plants are about to fire up their pumps and start drawing on the winter rains locked up in the soil beneath them. Before the sap really starts to flow there’s a great opportunity to upgrade existing woody plants in the garden. With some special treatments you can turn lonely or forgotten trees or shrubs into striking focal points. By pruning, polishing or scrubbing, run-of-the mill plants can take on a new lease of life.
The hardy Chinese windmill palm ( Trachycarpus fortunei) really wows with its fan-shaped leaves and upright trunk. For an even more striking look, strip away old leaf bases and fibres to reveal a mahogany-looking trunk that boasts glossy, ruddy hues when polished with a damp cloth. This works best on palms of 10 years or more.
Continuing the trunk theme, now’s a good time to scrub any algal growth off trunks of trees such as birches and cherries with warm water and a stiff brush, and reveal their true colours.
With scrubbing and stripping done, it’s also worth doing some easy pruning to upgrade lacklustre tree and
shrubs. Evergreens such as hollies, bays and laurel, are often clothed to the ground with foliage. This is great if they’re being used as a hedge, but as garden specimens you can make them, and the area around them, more appealing by feathering up. This simply means removing lower stems and branches up to around 2m (6ft 6in) with neat, snag-free cuts. The process allows more light at the
base so other species can grow, and turns shrubby plants into compact ‘lollipop’ trees. While you’ve got the secateurs handy why not change the look of some garden shrubs, too? By hard pruning or coppicing mature cotinus, catalpa and paulownia now you’ll have impressive plants come summer. The process is pretty simple. Just prune or lop the main stems of the shrub down to 50cm (20in) from the ground. This will trigger dormant buds to emerge as stems, festooned with luxuriant leaves. So, for little more than a few hours work and no cost it’s possible to transform your garden in a single day!