DD's tree gone wild

[digitS']

DD needs to know what these strange growths are (somewhat highlighted by sunlight). How and when the entire tree can be trimmed. What it is.

Severely neglected without water. She moved into the house in February.

Steve

 

[Nyboy]

What a pretty tree what is it /

 

[thistlebloom]

Looks like a Hawthorne tree Steve. You'll know for sure if you grab a branch and get a big thorn in your hand. Haw haw.

Are those branches bare and dead? Sorry it's hard to see clearly. They can just be cut out right now, dead or just weird. Cut back to the branch they originate from, or a healthy twig that's growing in a direction away from the center of the tree.

 

[digitS']

I wonder if her camera lens was smudged. Anyway, near sundown and that beam of sunlight was shining on just a spiral of green twigs. There is more of it beneath the normal branches. No leaves. Must be some kind of aberrant growth, I guess.

I think a vase-shape is normal but it's very unbalanced. When do you think that some serious pruning would be appropriate?

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

August is a good month. The tree has slowed way down on producing growth hormones by then so you don't get that exuberant growth at the cuts.
(It really is called exuberant growth , ).

Or you could wait until late February next year when the tree is leafless and you can see the branch structure better.

 

[Nyboy]

I never knew Hawthrone trees flowered so heavy, do they come in other colors?

 

[digitS']

I don't know what is out there in the nurseries but there is a Washington hawthorn with white flowers.

LINK

DD is beginning to show an interest in her yard. There is quite a large lot but we will see how it goes.

Thank You, @thistlebloom !

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

You're very welcome! You'll turn that kid into a gardener yet Steve!

 

[digitS']

Ah but, dear old dad has to get a round toit!

August is a terrible month for me and "to its." You know what the weather has been like lately. I had a very busy late winter with things not related to gardening. (Except that I'm now busy doing repairs and repainting the front picket fence. That must relate to the flower beds out there beyond that it's been easy for me to trample them .)

I'm going to suggest that I get over to prune that hawthorne on one of these first days, unless someone cries, "no stop! It's too late!"

... unbalanced growth, crossed branches, and ugly pruning done in previous years. There is no growth beyond buds, so far.

Steve

 

[Collector]

Our last house had a flowering hawthorn like that they are beautiful when blooming. You are pretty safe to prune that tree now. They do tend to get pretty gnarly if left to long untended.