Contrary to popular belief, pruning does not involve turning an overgrown shrub into a rounded green mound. The worst thing you can do to a shrub is shave it to a round shape that is never found in nature and then wonder why the shrub never offers anything special for your landscape. Ornamental pruning allows the best features of a plant to shine and enhances the ordinary into the extraordinary. There are people who specialize in this and recently I had the pleasure to encounter one of those talented folks whose mission it is to make the natural shapes of shrubs and small trees the beauties they can be.
Scott Wineland of Chico combines his love of furniture making and arborist skills into an artform. For 49 years, Wineland has cut and sold walnut wood that caters to furniture makers. One of the most famous American furniture makers, George Nakashima, asked Scott’s help after they met on a special project called Altars for Peace in New York City. After they met, Nakashima asked Scott to care for the lace leaf maple growing in Nakashima’s garden in Pennsylvania. It is the tree Nakashima’s father brought to America from Japan as a sapling and planted in 1950 at the Nakashima family home in New Hope, Pennsylvania. Scott has been caring for the tree since Nakashima’s death in 1990 at the family’s request. It takes Scott over two days. The last time he did so, he noticed a crack in the trunk that required building a wooden support made of black locust wood to keep the crack from destroying half of the tree.
Scott presented his work at the October meeting of the Garden Club of Colusa County. The public is welcome to these meetings that are held on the 4th Monday of the month at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church at 6:30 p.m.