Pollard dormant trees to limit size
Now is the time to pollard trees – this is a method of pruning often used on street trees to stop the canopy getting too large, but can be used in gardens too. Simply cut all the young shoots back to the knobbly callouses created from previous years of pruning.
In the case of this catalpa, pollarding keeps the tree from getting too tall and also increases the size of its leaves. It works on many trees, including planes, horse chestnuts, paulownia and mulberries. It can also be used to improve the vibrancy of stem colour on some shrubs. Just wait for young plants to have strengthened their growth over two years before starting this regime.