trimming back flowering maples

I would love to grow these in my area but would need to bring them in during the winter. I have a small greenhouse so I can't take on too many large pots. Can Flowering Maple be trimmed way back and come back later?

If you want to prune a maple, wait until it has finished flowering before doing so. I'd also go easy on pruning; although maples can be coppiced, regrowth may be slow, and not very well-shaped.

Resin

Thanks. But what is coppiced?

Coppiced means cut back to nearly ground level, and growing back from the stump. I'm assuming that's what you meant by "trimmed way back". Probably best only done with more vigorous maples like Norway Maple and Silver Maple; I'd not try it with e.g. Japanese Maples.

Resin


This message was edited Jan 18, 2009 5:14 PM

Woodspirit--I think you're talking about Abutilons and Resin is talking about maples...and abutilon isn't even related to maples so the pruning techniques may not translate.

I have no personal experience pruning abutilons, but found a couple websites that say it can be cut back hard in spring--not sure what will happen though if you do the hard pruning in the fall before you bring it in. Hopefully someone here will have some experience with them--if not you might try posting in the Tropicals forum, you may find more people there growing them.

Yes I was talking about Abutilons, sorry Rresin. Until I hear further, I will just trim them in the spring. I don't want mine to get 4-8 feet tall, that's for sure.
Hmmm, I wonder if root-trimming would be a good idea too.

Very strange typo to make!

Over here Abutilons are sometimes called flowering maple as a common name because of the shape of their leaves being similar to maples. Yet another case of common names making things confusing!

sorry, Resin.

Ecrane is right - in California, abutilons are referred to as flowering maples frequently.

I have one growing in my front door area, and I prune it back every year about this time to about two feet. Then it grows to about 6-8 feet during the course of the following year. I wanted mine to be more tree-like, but you can keep trimming throughout the year to keep it more bushy. Below is a photo taken in August.

and here is a more overview photo

Woodspirit, I have mines in the ground so can't give you any clue on root-trimming. My plant does get scales sometimes, and I prune those branches off during spring or summer, and the plant always springs right back. So, the abutilons seem to be able to take pruning throughout the year.

Great, thanks.