Weeping White Pine

A Quick Guide for Pruning the Weeping White Pine

The Weeping White Pine tree is among the most beautiful and grace of all evergreen trees. This tree has branches that tend to sweep down gracefully toward the ground. This tree is also known as the Pinus strobes. They originate in North America and will grow well in zones 3 through 7.

When used in landscaping designs, the Weeping White Pine is placed as a hedge plant, or alone to add something extra to the landscaping of a garden or yard. This is a slow growing tree, but when it does reach maturity it can grow to heights of anywhere from 6 to 12 feet. There spread is larger than their height, as the Weeping White Pine can have a spread of 25 to 35 feet. It has soft needles, and gracefully sweeping branches.

It is important to prune the Weeping White Pine; this tree will not grow very high if it is not trimmed, but it will grow outward, likely causing it to look like a very wild and massive bush. Another reasons why it is important to trim the Weeping White Pine is that you will need to remove the dead and disease areas of the tree, plus pruning this tree will help it to develop a strong trunk.

To prune the Weeping White Pine you will need to follow these steps.

With this type of pine tree you should trim any damaged or diseased branches as soon as you notice them. The Weeping White Pine does not need to be trimmed, only when it is dormant, you can removed damaged branches during anytime of the year.

When you have a young Weeping White Pine you will want to try and help it develop a central trunk so that it will grow up, and not just out. To do this cut away any branches that appear on the lower level of the trunk. When cutting the branches from the lower trunk area, you will need to make sure that you get all of the branch, without leaving any stub. If you leave stubs where you have cut away branches, the tree will be susceptible to disease. The best time to trim the lower branches that appear on the trunk is during the winter, when the tree has gone dormant.

The next step in properly pruning the Weeping White Pine is to trim any of its branches that are getting close to reaching the ground. This is important, due to the fact that if the branches begin to grow along the ground they will turn to groundcover. Carefully cut back the branches to where they are again above ground level. You will want to trim these branches in winter, or early spring.

You will want to trim back any branches on this tree that are growing outside of the boundaries for that tree. The Weeping White Pine will obstruct your landscape and grow into other plants if you are not careful to keep it trimmed back. When pruning this tree, cut back toward the trunk, any areas of the tree that are moving out of its designated growing space. This trimming can be done in winter or early spring.

If you want to trim back the new growth, you can best do this by cutting the new shoots. Don’t cut them completely off, but trim them back to about half of their growth. You will want to trim the shoots in the spring after they appear, but not until they have completed the growth cycle and the needles are soft.