I saw a group of trees that have been topped at the Garden, but I thought that topping trees was bad for them. — Angela Groskopf, Park Ridge You may be referring to the group of sycamore trees planted ...

Pollarding is a type of severe pruning that results in a dense growth of branches at the pruning site instead of its naturally shaped crown. Last fall, I decided to pollard a catalpa tree to re-create ...

One afternoon in the not too distant future I’m going to get out front and pollard my golden privets. It’s a good thing I garden with clothes on, pollarding can be painful. Pollarding started out in ...

You either like the look of a tree that has been pollarded, or you do not. It's not a natural look. This time of year, a pollarded tree presents a trunk capped by a clubbed head, or a trunk with short ...

Question: I've got two trees in my yard that were pruned years ago -- before I bought -- by someone who had no idea what they were doing. The result is large branches that look like "clubs." All new ...

February is the month to prune evergreen and deciduous trees. General rules to follow are to prune dead and diseased wood first followed by removal of other wood to shape or thin as necessary. Always ...

On a recent trip to southern France I was fascinated by what some people might term "tree abuse." The French love to turn certain trees into sculpted forms by removing all new growth each year -- or ...

Much has been written about crape murder and the practice of “topping” trees. Unfortunately, at this time of year, the work of tree hackers, both professional and layman, is evident just about ...

Don’t look now folks, Louisville has become a tree city. No, I’m not talking about the Tree City USA designation bestowed upon some tree-centric communities by the National Arbor Day Foundation. I’m ...

You either like the look of a tree that has been pollarded, or you do not. It's not a natural look. This time of year, a pollarded tree presents a trunk capped by a clubbed head, or a trunk with short ...

Last fall, I blogged about a catalpa sapling I pruned. The results of that pruning have been evolving through the summer. The tree is a wildling that just happened to sprout from seed along the west ...