Like a Well-tamed Beard, Get the Perfect Shaped Tree!

Trees are showing their green! Tiny buds, leaves, new branches – the trees are getting ready to show their stuff as soon as the last of the frosts are gone for spring and summer. There are a couple of branches that need to be gone; it looks like they didn’t handle the weight of the snow very well. An area looks a little weather-worn, but it’s minor.

When to prune?

There’s never a wrong time to remove dead or broken branches. These become a hazard in a heavy storm or sweeping winds. Otherwise, it isn’t necessary to prune a tree during the first year after planting. After that, regular pruning, starting with only a little pruning, helps your tree grow strong, productive, beautiful, and well-shaped.

Trimming during the tree’s dormant period, usually during winter, encourages new growth when the weather begins to warm up. The fall of leaves gives a clear view of the branches and limbs and which ones need to be removed.

Some trees will “bleed” sap if trimmed during late winter or early spring. Most of this sap flow will stop once the tree starts sprouting leaves, but many sap trees, like maple trees, do best if trimmed in winter.

Pruning trees in the fall can sometimes allow the disease to be introduced. If it’s a warm fall, it might even encourage new growth – growth that will be damaged once winter temperatures set in.

What do we do for larger trees now?

First things first, but not necessarily in that order. Trees are different. The things we do for our lawns, there’s usually a step-by-step process.

Trees, though, can be a little daunting. For one thing, most of them are tall. Taller than you are. Taller than your tallest ladder. Taller than the house, some of them! Wait, taller than our tallest ladder? It sounds like someone else, someone professional, should be working on the trees. So right!

Your planning skills come in handy here. You established a relationship with Divine Lawns, and now they take care of all of your lawn and garden needs. They handle the snow in the winter. They take care of cleanup in the spring and fall. They help you decide the gardens, what kinds of flowers would look great, when to mulch, and what different types of gardens can look like.

Call Divine. Tree problems will be no problems.

Tree health

Although it looks like pruning is hurting a tree, it’s really a necessary step to the excellent health and growth of the tree. 

Great! The guys and their ladders are here, and look there! Their ladders are tall, and it looks like they are used to climbing trees to take care of them. That’s a relief; you didn’t want to climb the trees, did you? Safety is a significant thing, and you can see that your tree crew is using all the safety equipment and behaving in safe ways.

The first thing they’re doing is taking care of the broken or breaking limbs. The huge one looks like it’s as old as the tree itself is cracked right through. Too bad, it has to go. A couple of branches are not showing any green even though every other branch shows leaves and growth and new buds. Those will have to go, too. Limbs that are not producing use the tree’s resources without contributing anything.

Then it looks like branches that are crossing each other are being thinned. Also, branches that are starting to grow too close to power lines will be pruned. 

New growth is often trimmed or cut. The angle of the cut will be the direction of new, thicker growth. Thicker branches that must be removed are done with two cuts, one from the bottom and one from the top, angling toward the tree trunk. This is often further trimmed closer to the trunk, and the tree bark will eventually grow over the area.

What about fruit or flowering trees?

Flowering trees don’t really follow the rules most other trees seem to follow. Trees that flower or bear fruit seem to fall into two growth categories: early or late bloomers.

Early bloomers start blooming in late winter or early spring (as soon as the temperature starts rising) and will grow buds on the parts of the tree that had growth the year before. That means if you prune in the winter, you won’t have new blooms or fruit in the spring. So, in general, early bloomers should be pruned soon after the tree is finished blooming.

Late bloomers will bloom in the late spring or early summer and grow buds in areas with new growth. This means a tree trimmed in early spring will start blooming on new growth during the summer.

The goals to pruning and trimming

The goals of all this pruning, trimming, and shaping your trees is to give the tree good sunlight over more of the area, good air circulation, and improve attractiveness and strength. The most popular pruning methods involve improving the tree’s crown, which is essential for the tree’s health. A healthy crown increases leaf production, photosynthesis, and the overall health and strength of the tree.

Tools

You will see your tree trimming people using a variety of tools. Power tools that can extend their reach for cutting come in various sizes for different limbs. Saws with extendable handles will help reach branches 16 or more feet away. Smaller hand pruners will help with keeping growth heading in the desired direction.

Your landscape partners at Divine Lawns will be happy to add the care of your trees to their other landscaping tasks. And you will love your landscape and outdoor areas that are so well-tended.