Yup, prune up the trunk a few inches and thin out the branches and foliage. A lot of it can be done with your fingers or small floral scissors. I remove between one third and one half of the branches and foliage before planting. Here is a pic of some dwarf box I did last year. The middle one is the "before". This Spring they are pretty full already and will need a bit of thinning.
-Brian
What I have are miniture cottoneaster elms. These are 3 (almost 4) years in the ground here, plus a year or to in the nursery. Like everyone else has said: clear the bottom 3~5 inches of trunk, depending upon what your setting is (ie. city park, housing neighborhood, business district, rail yard etc.) Determine the "outershape" your are interested in, and start clipping. After you have established the shape, then go inside and thin. The "inside trimming should be to the trunk, after a couple of growing seasons of constant trimming you will have a mature looking trunk. Depending upon your soil conditions, weather, watering habits, feeding habits, then you will be trimming 3 to 6 times a year to maintain them. Healthy trees grown very fast at times.
Tom Trigg
Tom,
Those cottoneasters look great, spectacular, actually. A few days ago I purchased a cranberry cottoneaster. They flower in spring but are most spectacular in fall when they produce bright red berries and red leaves. And, they are sort of scale in look, especially for my 7/8 scale (advantage of going up in scale is that more plants become scale)
I'll take the advice and prune the albertas a few inches up as they look sort of fake with foliage to the ground.
All: Thanks for sharing photos and advice!
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