Off Centre Messy Pine

[thingus]

Hiya - new here

I've been trying to manage my small front garden and in it is this young pine tree. Previous owner planted it very close (probably didn't think so at the time) to a holly bush (I might get the names wrong, i'm not an expert) so it's gone of on a sort of J from the main stem and also is a bit full & busy.

Anyway I like the idea of the pine and trying to manage it but i'd rather not butcher the holly as it's quite neatly trimmed, and the leader has already gone off on it's J bend to the right as you might be able to see from the pic.

Does anybody know how I should trim this not just to promote growth but also to keep it neat without damaging it?

Many thanks

 

[Tetters]

Hiya - welcome to you from Kent Now, I shall have to give you my advice, which I'm fairly sure you won't like much - sorry.
One of these has to go. There is a choice to make here. If the pine tree is growing crooked now, it will continue to grow crooked, and until it gets tall enough to clear the holly it will end up blocking the pathway. I'm not sure what variety of pine that is, but a lot of them grow very tall indeed. The holly on the other hand is very dense, and doesn't let much light through. It is quite fast growing and clips well to size. Again, I can't tell which variety you have there, but hopefully it is one that bears berries.
Which one do you like best? For a few pounds, is there a more suitable alternative shrub you might use instead of one of those?
Sometimes we get saddled with difficult choices - I reckon this may be one of them.

As an afterthought and answer to your question, any kind of pruning will promote growth.
It would be an ongoing job to cut back the holly until the tree reaches a good height, and the cut would need to be brutal. If I hard prune almost any shrub it will always seem to grow faster than ever!

 

[thingus]

Thanks for your advice. I hoped that would not be the case.

Maybe I'll just try and prune it to look good and see what happens. It isn't affecting the holly in any way (it doesn't grow berries) as that seems to be thriving, but so does the pine.

I'll hack away and see how it goes, knowing if it doesn't work it'll be coming out anyway

 

[Tetters]

I will be very interested to know how that goes. If it was my decision I would have ditched the holly, and maybe bought another one that has berries and plant it a bit further away.

Golden King is a good one, adverse name

Be careful cutting the pine - it might sulk! I would try to pull it a bit more upright and stake it securely.

As an added thought...... when I had my little nursery, I always had more little pine trees than I should have, as I was rather fond of them. This resulted in a glut, so I put them all away except for one. Then I wrote a label with ''LONESOME PINE'' and that idea resulted in selling every one of the trees within a couple of weeks

 

[thingus]

Will try that, thanks. The holly is 8 foot tall and is on the corner of the drive and also provides privacy to the kitchen so with my sensible head on it's the right one to keep really.

The pine has been quite happy for at least 10 years though... I've been here 8 but only really taken any notice of the front garden in the last 2 years.

Thanks again for the advice