[Umbrian]

A friend of mine living in England has recently moved house and in the garden are 3 quite small hornbeams planted fairly close together. She thinks they might be the fastigiata kind as they are fairly columnular in shape but she is anxious to keep them "narrow" with space between them and is wondering if she should prune them and if so when.

[Jill S]

Do any formative pruning (presuming they are young enough to still need forming) during first few winters. Then they can be trimmed up to keep in shape in mid to late summer. The owners of a Hornbeam hedge across the road from me have been attacking it for the last few weekends, but just a bit of smartening up.

I wonder why they were planted close together? could this be as a screen or putative hedge?

[Umbrian]

Thanks JillS for your advice that I will pass on. Why were the trees were planted so close together? -well everything in this garden is planted close together as if the former owner could not resist buying things and planting them willy nilly despite the fact that it is a big garden. There are many choice subjects but nothing has a chance to develop properly and shine and so my friend is having to do a lot of reorganising. The Hornbeams are quite young and she loves them and so will prune them to retain shape and space between them - surrounding things will be moved!