[KathieI]

My trees suffered badly from the frost of winter, so I trimmed the dead stuff off after the frost was over. Doing that, increased a lot of inner growth which I didn't want, as I like the tall, lean look. So after my landscaping was done a few months ago, I trimmed all the inner growth and cut back some branches about a foot. Gave them a good amount of Miracle Grow a few weeks ago and they are blooming like crazy. Beautiful shade of deep rose. Unfortunately, some of the branches are heavy with blooms and are drooping, so come fall, I will cut them back even more (way before frost hits) and we'll see what happens next spring. They are pretty hardy and it will be tough to do real damage to them but the point is to increase the blooms without creating a drooping tree.

I love doing this, its a labor of love.