Pruning and Shaping

Professional Pruning/Shaping

Professional pruning saves you money while increasing the value and curb appeal of your whole property. Regular pruning of your trees and shrubs not only keeps them healthier and better looking now, but protects them from a whole host of potential problems as they grow and continue to mature.

Why Professional Pruning
  • To improve a plant’s looks and help it keep the best shape and growth habit
  • To prompt new growth, since plants respond to pruning by growing
  • To reduce foliage to what the roots can support on newly transplanted plants
  • To improve a plant’s health by removing dead, diseased, or insect-infested wood
  • To allow more sunlight to reach inner branches, helping to prevent disease
  • To remove weak or dead branches that could fall and hurt people or damage property
  • To allow for better wind movement through the canopy reducing the chance of damage in stormy weather

Pruning hedges

PruningAfter the initial pruning at planting, hedges need to be pruned often. Once the hedge reaches the desired height, we prune new growth back whenever it grows another 6 to 8 inches. Hedges may be pruned twice a year, in spring and again in mid-summer, to keep them dense and attractive. Hedges are pruned so they're wider at the base than at the top, to allow all parts to receive sunlight and prevent uneven growth.

Rejuvenation pruning for older or overgrown shrubs

Deciduous shrubs that have multiple stems (aka, cane-growth habit), and that have become very overgrown or neglected can be rejuvenated by cutting all canes back as close to the ground as possible in early spring. That season's flowers may be sacrificed but the benefits from bringing the plants back to their normal size and shape outweigh this temporary "collateral damage." This pruning technique works best for shrubs such as overgrown spirea, forsythia, cane-growth viburnums, honeysuckle and any other multiple stemmed shrubs that are otherwise healthy. Within one growing season, these shrubs will look like new plantings, full and natural shaped.