Please reply only if you have tried and tested pruning a physocarpus diabolo (ninebark) into a tree. Please tell me how you did it.
I've been successful with lilacs and forsythia but the physocarpus is already established- about 6 foot tall and wide.
Thanks.
0
Posts
You can make a shrub into a " standard " but that doesn't make it a tree.
Don't try and make it a one stem lollipop. It will look dreadful and be prone to damage in heavy winds and hard winters. Multi-stemmed shrubs look good this way as long as you maintain the effect by ruthlessly brushing off with your hand any new buds that form along the bare stem.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw