Winged Elm at VISTA Gardens: Before and After

One of our favorite arborists, Jordan Upcavage from Independent Tree, visited with seven VISTA Gardens members recently to show us how to trim VISTA's young and growing Winged Elm (Ulmus alata) tree. 

Lessons Learned: 

1. The arborists’ mantra is Structure, Clearance, Appearance. In that order.

2. The importance of identifying dominant leader trunks and determining the aspect ratio between trunk and branch. 

3. A best practice to encourage a new tree or other plant that is being removed from its pot and placed in the ground is to mercilessly cut the sides and bottom of the root ball to encourage the roots to grow outward away from the root ball. We can think of this as aggressive teasing of the root ball. 

4. If you hold the trunk of a younger tree that has been planted in the ground and are able to rock it back and forth, that tree is root bound and will likely not survive a windstorm. 

5. When deciding which branches to trim, choose the ones that are smaller than the trunk diameter since they will leave less of a wound on the tree from which to recover. 

6. If you're deciding between two nearby branches, always pick the branch with the smaller diameter as it creates a smaller wound area on the trunk. Make a small cut into the bottom of the branch first before cutting from the top to insure the branch is removed cleanly and doesn’t strip bark off the tree. 

7. Thinning out interior branches allows more sunlight to help tree growth. Remove branches that rub against each other. 

8. Since pruning and shaping is a yearly requirement, we shouldn't worry too much about making a mistake. 

9. Finally, when planting the root ball in the ground the top most visible root should be at the ground level and remain visible. 

Thank you Jordan for an interesting and educational hour helping us learn about tree care.

For more information about correct pruning we suggest this piece from UF/IFAS. And this one about the benefits of planting saplings. 

Photos below show Jordan with VISTA's Winged Elm before and after the correct pruning technique.