How And When To Prune A Golden Chain Tree For More Gorgeous Blooms

The golden chain tree (Laburnum anagyroides) is a stunning deciduous tree that produces masses of fragrant yellow blooms in May and June. These eye-catching blooms hang down in long racemes to create a most spectacular display of color, making it one of many trees that bloom with golden yellow flowers to brighten up your yard. If you have this tree growing in your garden, you'll want to know how and when to prune it to ensure that you get plenty of gorgeous blooms. The golden chain tree is native to Central and Southeastern Europe, and can be grown in USDA hardiness zones 5 through 7.

Ideally, you want to prune your golden chain tree either in late summer once flowering has finished or even in winter while the tree is dormant and there are good reasons for this. Apart from a general tidy-up to keep your tree to the shape you want, you do want to remove any suckers or water shoots as well as the seed pods. All parts of the tree are poisonous, including the seed pods, and these should be disposed of promptly.

Although golden chain trees are generally pruned in late summer, they can be pruned right up until the end of December. The most important thing to remember when pruning your tree is to avoid pruning it any time from spring to early summer as the tree is likely to bleed. Bleeding is when the tree's sap oozes from the wounds made by pruning cuts. While this is generally not considered harmful, it can lead to less vigorous growth and does leave the wounds open to infection from fungal or bacterial diseases such as bacterial canker. The bleeding sap can also attract insects, which could damage the tree. If a tree is bleeding, it means that it's been injured in some way, which can include pruning.

While you don't want to prune your golden chain tree while it's in active growth, you do want to remove the seed pods as soon as they appear once the flowers have finished. These are quite unattractive and also take up valuable energy to produce, which the tree could otherwise use for more growth. Plus, the toxic seeds should be kept well away from animals and children. It's also recommended that you wear gloves when working with this tree, including when you're removing seed pods.

There are various ways that you can prune your golden chain tree depending on how you want it to grow. It can be shaped to grow as a hedge, which will require regular maintenance to maintain the shape. It's also common to train this tree to grow over an arch or pergola. This means you'll want to train the growing branches onto the supports and tie them on. In fact, growing this tree over an arch is one of those unique ways to make your tiny garden look more spacious. On the other hand, you can just grow it as a specimen tree where it will need minimal pruning just to maintain its natural shape.

Regardless of your tree's shape, you'll need to remove any suckers or water shoots that appear near the base of the tree or below the graft (if you're growing a grafted tree). These shoots take away the tree's energy and are unlikely to produce any blooms. They generally grow from the root system and you might have to scrape back some of the soil to cut them right down to where they originate. You might find that you'll have to do this annually but if you only lightly prune your tree, it might reduce the appearance of these water shoots. Other than that, all you really have to do is remove any dead, damaged, or diseased branches if you're growing this as a free-standing tree.