I Have A Saw

  . . . and I know how to use it.

When the first tolerably warm weather arrived in the beginning of March, I got my Japanese pruning saw out and cut down the Rose of Sharon.

This was before I finished the job, I cut off more sections of the branches after I took this photo.

The Rose of Sharon had been tucked in behind a Spanish broom and placed right up against the fence many years ago. The broom grew to massive size, and desperate for room and sun, the Rose of Sharon leaned and canted outward. 

It did bloom where the top branches could cluster in some sun, but I barely saw them behind the broom shrub. They are a pretty white and magenta.

Now, with the big broom gone and the Rose of Sharon in view, I wanted to reshape this flowering shrub into something nicer.

This is rejuvenation pruning, where you take a shrub down to almost nothing and let it regrow. This plant blooms on new wood, so it should still bloom this summer where new branches grow, but obviously I've cut back a lot and will lose a lot of flowering.

But as it regrows each year, that should improve.

It's still going to lean, it's simply too close to the fence and the major base stem structure is still tilted out.  I'm okay with that: I will have an artistic, gracefully leaning tall shrub to frame my garden view. I'll call it intentional, that always works with garden misadventures.

I just want it to be denser, more flowery and less awkward. 

And really, I just wanted to be outside on a pleasant March day, with warm sun on my shoulders after a long cold winter, and happily plying my saw and my pruners. That was great.