Dear Neil: I saw your comment about training Nellie R. Stevens hollies to be more tree-like instead of using them as shrubs. Is that something I could do? How do they look?

I can show you how my own plant looks. The only requirement is that you have a plant with a fairly straight central trunk (or perhaps three trunks) that will look good as you start to remove the side branches. Do it one branch at a time, even if it takes a period of a year or more. It’s definitely something that anyone can accomplish.

Dear Neil: We have a large Shumard red oak that seems to be competing to be the last tree to leaf out on our block. Some branches have many leaves, while others are sparse. Is this a result of the cold, or could there be other things going on?

There’s always a chance of other things being involved, but I’ve had scores of questions about this over the past month. In consulting some of the state’s most respected arborists and foresters I keep hearing the caution of “patience.” They’re saying our trees may not be functioning completely normally until we get into summer. If it’s anything like the latent drought damage we experienced after 2011 (effects that were still showing up several years later), it may go on longer than that.

Have a question you’d like Neil to consider? Email him at mailbag@sperrygardens.com. Neil regrets that he cannot reply to questions individually.