Pruning Around the Pool
Outdoor spring chores at my Bedford, New York farm continue with a good pruning of the shrubs around my pool.
Around the outside of the pool fence, I have about 200 Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple' shrubs. I always try to incorporate unique and interesting plantings into my gardens - both these shrubs have superlative color and appealing form. They were first planted in 2018 and have done so well in this area. Yesterday, I instructed my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, to prune them down so they were level with the fence - some of the shrubs had grown more than a foot above this line.
Here are some photos.
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- Three years ago, when planning the gardens around my pool, I wanted to create a natural border along both sides of my pool fence, so I chose a dark purple color palette. The taller hedge is made of purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple’ – a splendid tree with deep-purple foliage. The smaller shrubs are the alternating Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Diabolo’ and Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’. They were still quite small when they were planted three years ago.
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- But they grow fast – here they are last summer when they were all leafed out. One can see which are the Cotinus and which are the Physocarpus – all of them look so lush.
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- This year, they’re even taller, and I decided they needed to be pruned down to fence level, so the beautiful purple columnar beech trees could also be seen.
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- Yesterday, Ryan, Brian, and Fernando pruned all the specimens – cutting down more than a foot off the tops in some areas.
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- Here is Ryan trimming from the top, making sure everything is in line with the fence and with the shrubs already pruned.
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- Brian also cuts off any dead or crisscrossing branches. The rule of thumb when pruning is to cut the dead, diseased, damaged, non-productive, structurally unsound, or otherwise unwanted plant material.
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- Here is one of the dead branches – it is very woody and quite brown.
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- Here, Ryan also trims any branches that are sticking out too much from the front, making the shrub look less manicured.
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- Physocarpus is commonly called ninebark, and is an upright, spreading, somewhat coarse, deciduous, Missouri-native shrub which is closely related to the genus Spiraea. It boasts a deep burgundy foliage with ovate to rounded, usually three to five lobed leaves that are dull green in summer changing to an undistinguished yellow in fall. Then its color veers toward bronzy red by the time the leaves fall in late November.
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- There were also a few interesting bi-colored leaves – perhaps in the process of changing colors.
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- The common name ninebark refers to the peeling bark of mature branches, which comes away in strips. Here’s an example of a branch with the peeling bark.
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- If you follow my blog regularly, you may know I love Cotinus – I have many of these around the farm. Also known as smoketree or smoke bush, Cotinus is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. They are a great choice for massing or for hedges. The stunning dark red-purple foliage turns scarlet in autumn and has plume-like seed clusters, which appear after the flowers and give a long-lasting, smoky haze to branch tips.
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- Brian starts working on the other side of the fence, pruning in the same manner, so all the shrubs are at the same height. In most cases, pruning is best done when it is dry. Pruning when it’s wet outside can encourage the growth of microbes and spread disease; however, because these particular plants are very hardy and less susceptible to disease, it was okay to prune them on this rainy day.
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- Here is what the new growth looks like on the Physocarpus – the stem is still quite soft.
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- Once all the pruning is done, Fernando helps to gather the trimmed branches. Everyone uses my Multi-Purpose Reusable Heavy Duty Tote Bag – it’s so useful for carrying debris from the garden. It’s made from rugged, rip-resistant woven polypropylene fabric – perfect for holding anything and everything. Each bag measures approximately 20-inches wide by 20-inches long by 24-inches tall. They’re available at my shop on Amazon.
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- And here are the newly pruned shrubs on one side of the pool. They’re the perfect height and still disguises the fence very well.
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- Here is a view from the other side.
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- The growing hedge of purple columnar beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Dawyck Purple’ is also doing so well and are just starting to show off their gorgeous foliage colors – they will all look so much more full in a month or so.
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- And beneath the shrubs, these Hyancinthoides are just about to bloom. Hyacinthoides hispanica, commonly called Spanish bluebell or wood hyacinth is a bulbous perennial that is native to Spain, Portugal and northwest Africa. Each bulb produces a clump of two to six strap-shaped leaves. This rigid flower stem typically contains up to 12 to 15 hanging, bell-shaped, bluish-lavender flowers that will rise from the center.
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- Yesterday, we also opened the pool – it looks so inviting, even on this damp spring day. I’ll be enjoying lots of afternoons poolside very soon – I can’t wait.
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