Here's a white pine hedge

and here's a blue spruce hedge

Horticulturaly speaking, how sustainable do you guys think this is? (pruning aside)

When you top a spruce or pine, will it do a split into 2, or continue with same main stem growth? With this new growth, would it take place the next year when it forms new buds or would it branch that same year?

A spruce hedge would be easier than a pine hedge for uniformity as there are more buds along the branch to fill in but unlike a yew hedege it won't regrow from old growth so the correct amount of shear would have to be carefully judged. I have seen a loose pinus mugo hedge that was simply cut back unjudiciously and the unaffected branches filled in the gaps, though that can be unpredictable and it was on an industrial site. The white pine has more foliage to cover the cut ends and create a more unifed finish. It's probably a case of walking along with hand secateurs and removing the dominant branches each year. You talk of topping but a hedge would be better started from smaller plants rather than truncating larger ones.

White pine always drops branches. Blue Spruce and White Spruce may not drop lower branches if they are in full sun.

Spruce tend to look stupid if they lose the conical look, and they can't replace lost branches like most deciduous trees. So, if you make a mistake pruning them it's hard to recover.

Are these the only options offered? If not, list all the options. We may be able to suggest something better.

So you are talking about making a hedge. I have very tall white pines 40 ft from the house, and had topped those over the last 25 years because they simply became too tall. They will start multiple new leaders after 2 or 3 years and will become bushy at high altitudes. They will not loose lower limbs when you cut the tops. I removed the lower 30 ft because I needed more light for other plants.

My present question is : what is the maximum trunk diameter to need to cut down the whole pine? 5 ft? 6 ft?

Well actually I don't want to make a hedge, I was curious about what the trees would do once cut, because my plan is to make a privacy fence. Thing is, they would have to undergo some pruning like side branch trimming and possibly topping.

I've been doing some research, and found out that if you top em, the tree could take 1 or 2 new leaders in it's place, (or none) which can cause a crooked trunk. it also causes the tree to bush out at the canopy and apparently it's a big problem with snow loads. Also, if you trim too far into older growth it might not bud out again.

These are really the only choices for now until I can find a local vendor selling something different, and at a good price. We also have deer issues to be concerned about, they have destroyed our ceders in the past.

If you guys want to recommend something maybe I'll be able to track it down for a good price. Needs to be deer resistant for zone 3a. Eastern/Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadenis) is the best choice I found so far but can't find it locally for a good price yet, and am not even really sure if it's ideal either.

perhaps what you are missing ... is the army of gardeners with all the appropriate tools and that they are paid for doing it ...

none of that is what i would call a shearing project ... imagine millions of hand cut with hand shears ...

ken

wait ... i would store them on the north side of the house ... to insure they are properly hardened off ... or in the garage ...

you dont know where they were shipped from.. and they may not be ready for ma nature at your house ...

just because you have it in your grubby little hands.. doesnt mean its proper planting time ...

also .. many BBStore plants are extremely root bound.. and you need to do some severe root disturbance .. and frankly.. i learned that i preferred to do that when its closer to 50 degree ... why the heck you want to be out there???

done properly ... its a little more than digging a pot sized hole and sticking it in there ... see link .... though i am coming to understand.. you march to your own drummer.. which is fine with me ... lol ...

ken

https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

Ken what the hell are you talking about? Who said anything about planting right now? I'm in planning stage and you have no idea what size of trees I have access too or what I'm trying to accomplish. Piss off dick.

dont worry i will .. right after i find the post.. this was supposed to go into ...

oh.. its above the one that offended you ... so adios ...

ken

This is your 3rd reply, you added no value, and made assumptions which were entirely wrong just to insult me.

Piss off troll and get a life..

Ken posted his comment in the wrong thread so it wasn't aimed at you and seemed off topic. Yes he can be very brusque but don't cuss at him. He is an aquired taste.

Ken, you can use the edit feature to blank your comment and cause no confusion.

Fast, those photos show us that this can actually be done. When I lived in Upper Michigan, I saw spruce hedges for the first time in my life. Most unusual, yet not out of the question. We get into confusion because there are simply different ways to handle plants, and different goals that go along with these differing methods. I would not personally do this, but those photos prove, to me at least, that is is a reasonable thing to do. For me and a lot of other folks, the sheared hedge thing is just not what we're tending to reach for in our yards and gardens, but where it is desired, these somewhat surprising choices can work.

Very generally speaking plants with very fine-textured foliage tend to work best for sheared hedges, things like Jap. yews, hemlock, some hollies (I think-not really a holly guy), arborvitaes sometimes, etc.

A sheared pine hedge is not much difference to my blue scotch pine on a standard which I prune to the same 3 ft diameter most years. But pruning is much different to topping a white pine, where topping is done perhaps once or every 20 years and then left to grow those multi leaders.

I guess if you start off small anything is possible. When you shear conifers timing is important.

One of the tightest hedges I've ever seen was a Western Hemlock hedge. The owner died and it went to Hell, despite the new owner's best attempts. It has since been removed.

Mike

Yes, hemlocks of all stripes would be another good candidate for a coniferous, sheared hedge. They've got the fine textured foliage going on.

...and this brings us to another problem with sheared formal hedges. They look great...as long as the owner has both the skull and the time to keep them up. They start to look bad fast if you let them go. I suspect something with the ability to regenerate is more forgiving of a period of imperfect pruning then most conifers.

Hi, just hoping anyone has heard anything from Bernd since this post. He usually spends a lot of time at the hosta forum at this time during the season. Thanks. Hope he's OK.