The Century Tree

The Harcourts, the builders of the home, planted this beautiful Japanese Maple in the front yard. For an ornamental Japanese maple it is a large tree.

When the Harcourt’s sold the property, they told the new owners (the Parisers) the tree was a “century tree” meaning it was a 100 years old. The Parisers lived in the house for almost 50 years before selling it to a church, that owned it for almost 2 years. Was the tree 100 years old when it was planted, or 100 years old when the Parisers bought the house in the 1970’s? I do not know the answer to the question, as Dr. Pariser could not recall, nevertheless the tree is likely to be at least 150 years old.

You can see from this view that pruning had been neglected. This resulted in a tree that looked like Cousin It from the Adams Family. All the excess foliage was creating a burden for the tree. The tree was at risk of collapsing under it’s own weight.

Last year, I spent several days carefully pruning the tree. This type of pruning is called “cloud” pruning. The idea is the foliage should remind one of suspended clouds. Both Chinese and Japanese gardeners prune in this manner. Some people believe it originated in Japan, this style of pruning is called “Niwaki.”

It took some time to prune the tree. I wanted to be sensitive to the tree’s overall structure, while still removing enough to give it some breathing room and lighten the overall appearance. I would clip a few branches and then stand at a distance to survey the overall effect. It was time consuming and enjoyable.

Late last year, an arborist, from Central Hudson, our electrical provider, looked at the tree. He told me I had done a nice job pruning the tree. (I breathed a sigh of relief.) This year, I pruned it again.

Because of the age of the tree and the span of the branches, the tree needs extra support. It is common in China and Japan to install tree supports on older trees. I researched the internet, the library and asked at several botanical gardens for advice about how to construct and install these supports. Unfortunately, I could find no reference. I devised supports using parts of trees I had cut down in the yard.

The supports are constructed using discarded limbs that I screwed together. These were then attached to the branches at points I felt were strategic to the support of the branches. The supports are attached to the tree using a natural fiber twine. The organic nature of the supports means they will need to be replaced in time.

My role is caretaker of this tree. In a way, I do not even feel I own it – I merely am the latest person to take care of it. Like so many things in life, I wonder where it got it’s start? What has it witnessed? Trees are venerable and this one deserves merit for having persisted, despite neglect, and the elements. Now that it has been properly pruned and supported maybe it will live for another 150 years!