Saw a guy at the Portland Japanese Garden pruning a maple with tweezers, and now I can't decide if that's art or overkill | Botany Lovers - Hub Chatter
Saw a guy at the Portland Japanese Garden pruning a maple with tweezers, and now I can't decide if that's art or overkill
Was at the Portland Japanese Garden two weeks ago and watched a gardener spend almost 40 minutes on one branch of a laceleaf maple. He was literally using tweezers to pull individual leaves off, and he said it lets light hit the inner branches so the shape stays right all season. Part of me gets it, that's how you get those perfect cloud-like layers you see in photos. But another part of me thinks a good pair of snips and 10 minutes would do 90% of the same job. The tree did look amazing, I'll give him that. So where do you all land on this? Is that kind of hands-on detail work worth it, or are we just romanticizing slow gardening? Would love to hear from anyone who's tried pruning this way.