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I was suddenly inspired this morning to prune my old arbousier, or strawberry tree, into a 'Niwaki' cloud tree. Geneviève, a friend of mine who has a pretty Mediterranean-style garden, had pruned one of her olive trees this way and it looks amazing! I had already cut down part of the tree before installing my herbs because it had become too big for anything to grow at it's feet and was waiting for the gardener to come and cut the rest. Luckily our rendez-vous had been postponed or I wouldn't have been able to do this!

It took me all morning and much imagination to shape my tree, but I was able to determine the basic structure which will support five "clouds." My tree has large leaves so I will be making large round shapes rather than flat shapes. To begin, I decided what size and form I wanted my tree to be. Then I began determining which branches to keep and which ones to remove or shorten according to where I wanted each of my cloud shapes. I started cleaning up the center of the tree, removing unwanted twigs and dead branches to expose my tree's main branches. Then I began forming my clouds and shortening certain branches where I wanted a cloud form to be, always taking a step back to evaluate my progress. It is better to work slowly because once a branch is removed, you can't put it back!

I really like the effect on this tree. It's pruned back shape will allow sun and rain to fall on my herbs, while highlighting the sinuous form of it's branches and turns a pretty tree into a sculptural element in my garden!

Cloud Pruning

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