I pruned Hydrangea paniculata on the broadwalk which produce big conical heads of flowers and are quite straightforward. They flower on new year wood, generally each stem is cut down to two buds although this is dismissible depending on overall shape and length of stems (some nodes are further apart than others). Ideally it is good to have 'three fingers' per stem, but you have to consider which direction each shoot is growing out in, for stems not to cross each other too much and the result desired here was to get fewer but bigger flower heads so there was possible thinning too.
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| Photo 1: Hydrangea paniculata Pink Diamond 'Interhydia' before. |
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| Photo 2: Hydrangea paniculata Pink Diamond 'Interhydia' after. |
The way they are pruned lends for interesting angular shapes too. I pruned a couple of Floribunda cultivars, Skylight, Pink Diamond 'Interhydia' and 'Burgundy Lace' compact form (from Derby City Parks).
Tree Spader
The Herbaceous Team had a tree spader come in to move some trees from the recently closed Witten Street to replant near the winter walk. This included a full grown birch and a Prunus. It is said to be an expensive procedure and not one that is guaranteed to work, so careful consideration should be made to decide whether it's worthwhile to do this or to replant a new tree altogether. A metal contraption is placed around the tree, it has lots of separate moving parts like individual spades and they work at 'digging' the tree out (Photo 1). The man who was behind the wheel was on the phone and having a smoke whilst this was going on.
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| Photo 1: The tree spader around the tree working it out. |
When the tree is loose, the spader closes in on the tree and then lift it up out of the ground. At this point to give more leverage the front wheels of the vehicle will lift up completely (Photo 2).
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| Photo 2: Wheels lifting up. |
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| Photo 3: Lifted and away to a pre-dug hole. Lots of watering in again will be crucial. |