Tree & Shrub Pruning

Your landscape’s trees and shrubs will grow naturally on their own, but professional pruning can go a long way toward improving their appearance and health, especially for your flowering plants.

Why prune anyway?

• To improve a plant’s appearance and help it keep the right shape. 
• To prompt new growth. Plants respond to pruning by growing. Pruning also maximizes flowers and fruit. Pruning is very important for newly transplanted plants to balance the foliage to what the roots can support. 
• To increase the plant’s health by removing dead, diseased or insect-infested wood. Thinning also increases air circulation and light to inner branches to prevent disease. 
• For safety. Pruning removes weak branches that could fall and hurt people or damage property.

When is the best time to prune?

This is the most often asked question. And the answer varies depending on the kind of plant, and when and where flowers appear.

If blooms grow on shoots from the current season, like many kinds of roses do, it's best to prune before the plant blooms. If blooms grow on wood from the previous year, like the forsythia, or on wood that is two or more years old (like the apple tree), it's best to prune immediately after blooming. It's important to prune these plants before buds set for the next season.

Never top a tree!

Topping encourages disease, removes important food-producing leaves, weakens existing branches, and permanently disfigures the tree.