Have you dug them yet? If so, where are they now? They should have gone (with the biggest rootball you could reasonably take) into a 'training box' - a big wooden box with slats and/or screening, either in a cold frame or right into the ground for a couple of years, not in direct sun. Water only when the ground/soil is NOT frozen, though it should go that way soon for winter, and let it get snowed on, which is good insulation. If you haven't dug, wait til early spring, before bud break, and except for not watering 'if frozen', and snow, everything else would be the same. You're trying to get a mass of new feeder roots up near the trunk so you can eventually (2-3 yrs) cut off the old long woody ones, but it takes a while, and in-ground or training boxes are the fastest best way. You can also take off any major branches you don't want and in the spring, you could do foliage trimming, but the more you let it grow out in general (roots included), the faster you'll have a fat trunk and good development, but it needs a couple of yrs at least to recover from the digging.

Lucy,
Thanks for the post I understand most of the general rules for digging at least I think lol execpt for should you reduce the foliage at time of collection to equal out the root loss? and not over stess the tree as a general rule? In this post I was looking for info specific to firethorn, because some trees can be treated very differently when dug like bald cypress or wisteria. Know what I mean? I really do appreciate any help though thanks in advance.

Steve

Sorry, I'm not that familiar with them as outdoor trees or re digging, but I wouldn't worry about top pruning now as a) the leaves should be falling by now anyway, and b) the stress of pruning branches (as opposed to just taking off one major headache) now when it wants to be dormant and not stimulated to new growth could be a problem, PLUS I recently read that the practice is being questioned by people now because loss of too much foliage per se is a loss of 'food' to support the roots.. so it's another new thing to think about (and I thought this was just a nice little hobby!).

Thanks Lucy,

I haven't dug them yet was going to wait till spring. You know that when you reduce the foliage you should reduce the roots an equal amount and the other around also as a general trimming rule right? And that remains to be my one major collecting ? because you almost always lose some roots when collecting from the wild. Should you also trim the top??? and also say your removing a big tree and for space or transportation reasons you need to reduce the top, is that ok? will the tree make it? I know what you hobby/obbsesion lol.

Thanks

Steve

If you're doing it in the spring, then you can take off more.

I have some pin oaks, and crepe myrtles that are 6-8 feet tall, in nursery pots, that need to be sunk into my parents garden before deep freezes arive. This garden is 300miles away. Even if it is not ideal, would it be fatal to wack these trees down to a size that I could fit into my truck? David prescots book refers to heavy pruning in the fall/winter, is this what he is talking about?
thanks, alex

If they've gone dormant, you can take off some stuff, but if you're cutting below where all foliage grows/grew, then nothing's guaranteed as some things will bud back below such a cut and others won't, and I don't know whether yours will or not.