Nature or nurture

[Warren Stirling]

I had as customer yesterday who I had a discussion with about what to replant in the place of a Birch( pendulus Sp) that I removed due to wind damage. She started saying that she had seen 'a birch tree of somekind with very white bark' that had multi stems from the ground. Jacquemontii I presumed. I said I could formative prune one but how about planting a genus which naturally has the shape that she wanted. This is'nt about what to plant here, but it got me thinking about going against what nature intended the shape of a tree to be, excluding being planted solely for the purpose of being harvested for fruit or wood.

I find a similarity with children who's parents have a dominant idea of what they are going to be from a very young age and who then grow up to rebel. (Weak unions etc)

 

Interested to hear your opinions on formative pruning for aesthetic reasons only.

 

Warren

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

ive been pruning trees for asthetics for 25 years.

 

nowt wrong with that, its not anti nature, the tree IS nature.

[Dan Curtis]

Imo, formative pruning should be what it says. It should be done when the tree is forming, not once it's mature, whilst trying to be create a well formed, properly structured scaffold. I personally try to keep in mind what shape the species naturally takes, ie. Not pruning a birch or cedar into a rounded/spherical canopy.

 

A lot of the pruning I have done in my current job has been purely aesthetic, and while I don't set the specs, or always agree with them, I try to be as sympathetic to the tree as possible, whilst fulfilling the customers requirements.

 

We are, after all,a service industry, and despite what a lot of us like to think 9 times out of 10, we're doing a service for the customer, not the tree. They got along fine without us for millennia

[Warren Stirling]

Yes that is what I meant by formative pruning, deciding the tree shape from planting instead of selecting something which naturally has the shape wanted. But your right, its not my garden and the customer gets what the customer wants.

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Yes that is what I meant by formative pruning, deciding the tree shape from planting instead of selecting something which naturally has the shape wanted. But your right, its not my garden and the customer gets what the customer wants.

 

within reason I hope!

[Jesse]

Dominant clients! they are a pain, try to do whats right for the tree but explain your preferred Arboricultural approach,if a client won't respond to sound Arboricultural advice and if i'm not happy with the job spec i'll walk away, its hard to take this stance especially with todays economic climate but I think the reputation you develope over time will out way the clients you lose.

[Warren Stirling]

within reason I hope!

 

If you saw this lady, you'd give her whatever she wanted. Unfortunately she has a stinking rich husband who does that and guessing by her body language a dirty tree surgeon doesnt do it for her. And as she pointed out, she doesnt have workmans tea!

Kjames your right, you have to put principles before pound notes sometimes.