American Redbud Tree, Kiwi Vine, Spruce, and Grapevine, and Memorial Day

I spent part of Memorial Day quietly communicating with plant and animal life. I straightened out the flag, watched the Marines fight out of Chosin Resevoir, read part of a book about George Washington and watched several sequences of Apocalypse on the Smithsonian Channel. That was new film footage of WWII--battles in Europe and the Pacific.

So I spent part of the Memorial Day weekend pruning shrubs and trees, something I haven’t had time to do earlier in the spring. Early spring is better, before the new growth goes wild, but it’s not yet summer when pruning will really stress the plant while it’s already suffering from heat exhaustion or dry weather.

I had already pruned the few cherry and apple trees last fall, so they were in pretty good shape. I should have done the grapevine at that time, too, but I tried some light pruning yesterday, being careful not to cut off the grape bunches. Light pruning.

I pruned quite a few of our spruce trees, the ones I planted three years ago. They’ve finally taken hold but some are rather bizarre looking, as they adapt to their new neighborhood. I’m not worried about damaging them because they’re resilient and, besides, I only nip the ends where I want the foliage to fill in empty space.

The Kiwi vine was tangled and overgrown. I spent lots of time tracing the interwoven skeins and separating them before cutting. It took some time. I did cut one strand I shouldn’t have, but the result is good. It’s a fine looking Kiwi, even though it’s never flowered and probably is not even thinking about bearing fruit. Too bad I didn’t get another. There’s only one species of Kiwi that is self-pollinating and I think I was deceived when I bought the plant. Anyway, it’s got nice leaves and vines, so whatever….

Now the three Redbud Trees (also called Judas Tree) .... I took hours to prune them, so that they’d have light, balance, and air. Balance is important. One of them split last year because of having heavier overhang on one side. I saved it by binding it together with wire and then wrapping the split in duct tape. I took off some of the duct tape. It was pretty major surgery, but the wound is healing nicely and appears to be stronger than the rest of the tree. It was worth the effort. If you haven’t seen the Judas tree when it blooms in very early spring….