Golden Conifer knocked over by wind on balcony 22-06-2012

oooh, hope it's all right

They don't suffer any damage as they have no rigid branches to break. Nevertheless they can damage other plants as they fall over.

This particular Conifer is the youngest & smallest of the three I have. As you can see it's also in the smallest & most unstable pot! The other two are in bigger, square pots but that doesn't stop a sudden strong gust of wind from knocking them over as well!

This one had a "haircut" last week! I moved it from under the windows to the side of the balcony but under a hanging basket. The only trouble was that the Conifer half hid the basket & stopped me from reaching it to water it. After a little while I decided that the top would have to come off - I cut it off & the tree fits much better under the basket & I can get to it to water it now!

I was going to suggest putting the pot into a bigger one with stones to weiht it, but then that's extra weight that would need to be shifted if you wanted to move the plant - but maybe it oculd be disassembled and moved in stages.

or bury a stake with it that can be secured to something immovable?

i'm always very careful about trimming plants - much easier to take off too much than to stick some back on!

Obviously with plants that are woody or, like Conifers, that are practically all leaves, you can do damage if you are not very careful! You could end up making an unsightly mess of things if you get "carried away"!

In actual fact that is what happened to one of these two Golden Conifers! I cut away one branch too many & left an unsightly hole in the tree! Fortunately I have two trees that can go quite close together so I pushed them together & now the hole is almost invisible unless you are looking for it!

I'm too timid to try anything much at all, in case it's too much. Even wary of pruning the roses, which is why they're sto straggly this year. I usually work on the principle that the less I fiddle, the less damage I do!

In the case of Roses you can't go much wrong even if you prune them to within an inch or two of the base! Seems very drastic & harsh but, with Hybrid Teas especially, it's much better to do that than to hardly dare to prune them! Hard pruning keeps your bushes tidy & manageable as well as healthy. You get bigger, though a smaller number, of flowers into the bargain - it's a win win situation! In fact hardly daring to prune them is the WORST thing you can do for them!

thanks, Balcony, that encourages me to get tough with the roses. One time I had three or four, so I cut them all bcak except one, to give me something for comparison. can't remember what happened, except that I think they all died that year. and I always prefer quality to quantity!