Weeping Tree Shapes In Garden Design

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Green willow, bent over the water …

Want originality? Do you want to turn your site into something special? Tired of rare, constantly freezing plants, and is not attracted by the red, repulsive color of the foliage of modern curiosities? Then the choice is one and it is obvious - weeping forms of long-known plants: apple, pine, spruce, and mountain ash. These unusual plants can be well combined with birch and willow, naturally weeping. Planted both singly and in any combination, they will enliven the site of any layout and style.

It is noteworthy that most of the trees with a drooping crown are not a creation of nature, but the brainchild of human hands, however, there are plants that appeared in this form in nature and still live in their natural environment. Usually artificial "weeping" can be created in two ways: grafted onto the stock or skillfully shaped.

Formation here is not difficult: in order for the tree to turn out weeping, it is necessary to choose a breed with flexible branches and regularly prune side shoots throughout the growing season. This will stimulate their active growth in length and will ultimately lead, and with your help, to "weeping". It is better to start shaping when the plant is still very young, then the chances that you will get exactly what you intended are great.

So, we managed to stimulate the active growth of plant shoots. Now you need to fix the obtained result in a certain position. To carry out our plans, we need a rope and stiff wire. As carefully as possible, start tilting the shoots of the tree in the right direction, choosing those that lend themselves to effort and do not break. Next, fix the wire by pressing it against the branch in the direction of inclination. The wire must securely hold the shoot in the position of your choice, but it should not damage the bark, even minor ones.

If you have formed a tree in this way in the autumn, and there is a long winter ahead of it, then it is better to use a rope, not a wire, in this case the risk of damaging the shoots is minimized.

Weeping trees, both formed and natural, can be used to shade a flower bed or flower garden, if necessary, to form shady alleys, to decorate a playground or gazebo.

Some weeping trees are great for planting near artificial or natural bodies of water, such as the weeping willow.

Weeping trees, planted, for example, in the middle of the lawn, are also interesting. They look like green fountains. All that is needed for this is to plant trees anywhere in the lawn in pre-prepared nutrient soil and water regularly. It will be very beautiful if you outline the boundaries of the tree using, for example, a decorative stone.

If your site already has a large garden of rather boring fruit trees, then you can revive it by replanting weeping trees to them. In this case, the weeping forms of fruit trees, for example, a weeping apple tree or a weeping peach (for warmer regions), may become the best choice. But the real design solution would be to land a mountain ash on such areas, which has a weeping crown shape. This plant will feel good in the north, center, and south of the country. Weeping mountain ash is most often a very graceful and rather fragile tree with delicate feathery leaves. And even at the age of ten, it is rather diminutive. During the flowering period, the weeping form of the mountain ash pleases with magnificent snow-white inflorescences, and in the summer the flowers are replaced by rather bright fruits with a rich orange color,collected in powerful inflorescences-shields. Even in autumn, the weeping mountain ash will not tire of delighting you - it will dress in crimson-yellow shades, preserving the fruits until mid-winter, while hungry birds, despite the bitterness of food, peck them all to the last.

As for caring for plants, weeping forms practically do not require it. However, some rules still need to be followed. So, for example, in the event that a weeping tree is grafted, absolutely all shoots that begin to grow below the grafting site must be removed. You should prune the crown periodically, for example, on plants such as weeping willow. After all, if you do not cut shortly its branches after flowering, then the crown can very quickly lose its shape. Such pruning will stimulate the formation of new shoots, and the regrown young crown will be even thicker and more interesting.

Remember, however, that all types of plants that bloom in early spring should be pruned only after their flowering is complete, and if pruning is carried out at a different time, there is a risk that flower buds simply will not form and the plant will not bloom.

Plants that bloom in summer should be pruned every spring. In this case, pruning should be carried out in such a way that, as a result, young shoots are greatly shortened, but at the end of each one there is necessarily a bud that will grow up.

Pruning is often minimized and does not cause major inconvenience. And not much time is spent. It would seem that everything is fine, but most weeping trees have one unpleasant feature - they are quite weakly winter-resistant. Therefore, such plants need to be protected from winter threats - they must be planted in a place protected from the north wind, and the trunks should be covered and mulched with peat or humus.

In conclusion, I want to talk directly about the weeping trees themselves, because today there is a fairly large selection of them in nurseries. There are many forms that are shade-tolerant, blooming amazingly beautifully, looking good in the autumn, or charming with turquoise green foliage in summer.

Here is a list of weeping trees, the most popular among gardeners, whose seedlings are not difficult to get.

The weeping willow is a plant that nature itself has shaped. The willow is low, no more than 12-15 meters, has very long and surprisingly flexible shoots, sometimes hanging down to the very ground or to the reservoir. The willow blooms in an original way - with earrings, is unpretentious to the soil, loves an abundance of moisture in the soil, but is afraid of severe frosts and can freeze, especially at a young age. Willow is the most successful tree for the formation of hedges, pergolas, alleys.

Weeping birch is also a tall, slender tree granted by nature with drooping shoots covered with bright green heart-shaped leaves. Birch can grow up to two tens of meters in height in just a few years, while enduring frost without problems. However, she is very afraid of drought. In the sultry 2010 in the Central region of Russia, almost all plantations of weeping birches died. In addition to the love of moisture, weeping birch is sensitive to light: it will grow poorly in the shade, the trunk will begin to bend in search of a space open to the rays of the sun.

Weeping ash is a rather modest tree, its maximum growth is 7-8 meters. Ash grows quite quickly, especially if it is planted in a well-lit area in a soil rich in moisture and calcium. Weeping ash can be placed both in single and in group plantings, its long and rather graceful branches will be appropriate in any composition.

Even more modest in size is the weeping acacia tree. Its height usually does not exceed two meters. This tree is quite hardy, not afraid of drought and severe frosts, grows on any soil, both in an open area and in the shade. Acacia is beautiful in summer (when its foliage has a dark, rich green color) and in autumn (when the foliage turns bright yellow), and in spring it is doubly beautiful, thanks to the yellow inflorescences with a pleasant aroma.

Surprisingly, you can find weeping pine and weeping larch in nature. The first is of three types - yellow, black and Weymouth. All these species are drought-resistant, tolerant to any type of soil, frost-hardy and light-requiring. Weeping pine of any kind is characterized by a chic, dense and flowing crown, which is beautiful at any time of the year.

Weeping larch is a short plant, reaching a height of six to seven meters in adulthood, spreading its shoots three to four meters. Larch is cold-hardy, moderately winter-hardy, but it does not grow well on any soil. It grows best on well-drained substrates, well-lit and moist. Its needles are pale green in color, turn yellow by winter. Therefore, and also because the trunk of a larch is rather fragile and does not have a dense crown, it is better to plant it in group plantings, and not in single plantings.

Nikolay Khromov

Candidate of Agricultural Sciences, Researcher, Department of Berry Crops, GNU VNIIS im. I. V. Michurina, member of the R&D Academy

Photo by the author, E. Valentinov and Olga Rubtsova