Tiger Eyes Revival

[TK9NY]

Let me start off by saying that I'm not plant savvy in the slightest. All the planting i've done in my yard was.... luck. And suggestions from local nurseries. I've had lots of success will perennials and small shrubs in the front and back. The house when i moved in 10 years ago had nothing but a couple big pine trees (since removed - one was towering over the house and at risk of dropping on it) and some crabapple trees (also gone, the former homeowners never cleaned up the apples which ruined the lawn, plus i have dogs and the apples attracted bees so they had to go too...)

So on to the question: i've have this Tiger Eyes Sumac in my backyard for around 8 years. It's always been upright, but this past summer it dipped down so the foliage was crushed on the ground. Too top heavy i guess? I never pruned it. Never knew i needed to. I braced it against a makeshift wood stand and tied it off to my deck so it wouldn't crush the plants growing under it but that's just a temporary fix. As soon as it grows back in this spring it'll just weigh itself down again. I believe the base of the main trunk is either bent or damaged, or the soil around it shifted, as well. Not enough to kill it but enough that i don't think i can realistically keep it upright.

It's roughly five foot tall when upright and the foliage is only growing at the top i would say 2-3 feet, the main trunk is bare and about 3-4 feet long. The foliage itself spread out nicely when it grows in. It's been a beautiful part of my backyard and i would love to keep it there.

A local nursery said that i could lop it off and it will just... grow back. When i showed them a picture of it they said i could take it off either in fall or spring (after the foliage fell or before it came in - while plant was dormant) and it would eventually grow back in. Is that correct? Or will it just die completely if i take it down that far? How SHOULD i go about trying to save it?

It's also started growing off shoots of smaller plants, which it has never done until this past summer i would say. I was pulling them to keep them in check but last summer i didn't pull a couple and just... let them grow to see what they would do. There's a trio of i would say one inch diameter shoots in a clump that had nice foliage growth. Would it be possible to transplant those elsewhere in the yard? How would i go about doing that? They've also dipped down, so maybe i can try to train them to grow a specific way with some sort of anchor?

Again - not experienced in the slightest. Help would be appreciated so i can get working on this before the plants start coming back in.

 

[Marck]

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) does grow rhizomatously. New, clonal plants will come up away from the parent plant. These may be grown and transplanted as desired. Also, the stems of a healthy Rhus typhina can be pruned to ground level and new stems will grow to replace them.

Tiger Eyes Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger'), in the Cashew Family (Anacardiaceae). The species is native to eastern and central North America. The cultivar is a sport of R. typhina 'Laciniata' that was discovered in 1985 in St. Paul, Minnesota.