A short while ago, Helen ("Hi, Helen!") commented on an earlier post about a pair of Salix Kilmarnock miniatures, which were missing their catkins, saying that on hers, the branches have gone a little wild and are trailing several feet along the ground.
She asked if it is ok to lop a lot of that growth off now - in high summer
- as she's concerned about accidentally killing something which is otherwise thriving.
Helen then sent me a picture of her tree:
What a dear little thing!
Helen is not alone, we've seen this before, where these dwarf versions have turned into muppet-like crawling creatures, attempting to take over the bed and possibly the entire garden.
I can't do better, really, than to point Helen, and anyone else with the same problem, to my earlier article about How To Recapture a Runaway, where I describe in detail how to tackle the pruning of this sort of creature, and suggest a couple of ways of improving it.
In a nutshell, yes, you can trim off those lower branches to stop them trailing across the ground.
There are ways to do it which will leave a more natural-looking tree - see the above articles for details - because if you just take the scissors to it, you'll end up with a "pudding bowl" haircut, which always looks ridiculous.
So there you go, Helen - yes, you can trim off those trailing branches, and yes, you can do it at this time of year.
Hope that helps!
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