Doug Miller wrote:

In article , Nate Nagel wrote:


Hi all,

I've got a redbud tree (at least that's what I've been told it is) in my
front yard. Unfortunately it is growing at an angle, hanging over the
street and actually around a streetlight. It is a very pretty tree but
looks like hell. I think it did this because it was competing with an
oversized elderberry bush that was left untrimmed by the previous
owners.



[snip amusing tale of much wasted time and effort]

ROTFLMAO! It took ten years for the tree to grow that way, and you think
you're going to pull it straight, just like that, in half an hour! Ain't gonna
happen.

You've already received two good suggestions: prune it to the shape you want,
or cut it down and replace it. If, however, you're still determined to pull it
straight, the only way you have any hope of doing it is a little bit at a
time. Sink a stout post in the ground about as far away from the tree as the
tree is tall. Attach a cable with a turnbuckle as far up the trunk of the tree
as you can, and just above ground level on the post. Pull the tree as far as
you can toward the post. Then leave it alone for at least a month. Repeat as
needed. It will take years.



It will break, probably, before it will bend. Even if it could be
pulled straight, the amount of tension required
would probably cut into the trunk and kill the tree. Redbuds don't have
an especially long life, so considering
a replacement is probably the best solutions. If one trunk is cut down
this spring, there might be enough sprouts
to give a shapely tree in a few years. Sounds like a lost cause.