I planted three purple leaf plum tress back in early spring. And of course after I planted the tree, that's when I did my research. They are prone to disease and insects. That aside, I decided to keep them. They are doing rather well and growing. During my research I read that these trees are naturally a vase shape tree. But I've seen some pictures where the canopy was more open

This is a pic of one of the purple leaf plum in my front yard


Here's a pic I found on the internet showing the tree in it's natural vase shape (so I've read)


Here's another pic from the internet showing how I would like my PLP to be shape like


I realize the simpliest answer to my question is to prune the tree. Where is the best place to prune in order to achieve the shape I'm looking for?

Thanks
Mike

 

Hi Mike,

Different varieties of purple leaf plums have different shapes. Newport is one of the roundest. You can read about many different varieties here.
http://www.arthurleej.com/a-purplumwest.html

If you do want to try and prune it to shape it a bit differently, you will need to do quite a bit of reading. Sometimes the vase shape that you have is caused by overcrowding in the nursery where they are grown. This site has extensive info on pruning by a most respected arborist in the industry. You can click on the links at the bottom of the info box.
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/pruning/index.htm

There is something else I see in your picture that concerns me that I'd like to point out. It appears your tree is planted too deep with too much mulch. Check to see if you can see the rootflare. Here's some helpful sites that show how to plant and mulch a tree and look for the rootfare.
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/rootg...pingflare.html
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/rootcomingtotop.html
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/rootgrowthdontsoil.html
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/overmulching.html
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/rootg...fectsdeep.html
http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/mulching.aspx

You should also consider removing the guy wires now.
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/staking.html

Newt

 

Newt, thanks for the info. I Googled each variety of purple leaf plum to find a pic of each.

ALLRED - unable to find photo

BIG CIS


BLIREIANA


CISTENA


HOLLYWOOD - unable to find photo

KRAUTER'S VESUVIUS

or


MOSERI - unable to find photo

MT. ST. HELENS - unable to find photo

 

NEWPORT


NIGRA or PISSARDII


PURPLE PONY or DWARF PURPLE PONY


SPENCER HOLLYWOOD


THUNDERCLOUD (most often sold)


TRAILBLAZER - unable to find photo

And finally VESUVIUS - unable to find photo

For those who might be considering this tree, hope these pics help.

 

Wonderful photos. Thanks for posting those.

Newt

 

No, thank you..................................

 

You are so very welcome! Glad I could help.

Newt