Sometimes shrubs just get out of hand or too big for their britches or just look straggly. If that’s the case, spring is a great time to rejuvenate these plants in order to get them “back under control.” Many types of deciduous shrubs tolerate being cut back to about 6″ above the crown of the plant.
It happens every day in every city. Tree companies that should not be working on trees are causing damage to the trees through ignorance. We can only make a change if we push education. I produced this short video that I hope will be spread to other Arborists, tree owners and those who make the decisions to work on trees. Please take a few minutes and watch this presentation and let me know what you think. Better yet, spread it around and let’s start working together to stop the improper tree work that is being done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iharEECxoM
Thank You
Blair Glenn
I.S.A. Certified Arborist #654
Edward F. Gilman and Robert J. Black
Pruning is the removal of plant parts, typically shoots, branches, fronds and flowers to improve health, control growth or influence fruiting, flowering or appearance. Roots can also be pruned and removed if they circle close to or are resting against the trunk. Pruning should be a routine part of home-ground maintenance and not delayed until the landscape is overgrown. Overgrown plants can be tall and leggy with little foliage close to the ground, and cannot be pruned to desired size in a single pruning without severely damaging the plants. These plants should be pruned back gradually over a period of several years. Read more here>>>
Click on any of the topics for many photo examples of pruning shade trees. Click here to begin>>>
Click through the photos to learn why trees were pruned in certain ways. See if you can determine what the tree needs before reading the paragraph at the bottom of each photograph. Click here>>>
by Edward F. Gilman
Professor, Environmental Horticulture Department
University of Florida, Gainesville
If you are asked to bid on a pruning job and there are no pruning specifications other than vague inferences, how can you possibly know what the client wants done to the trees? The answer is, you can not know. The client probably does not know what they want either.
This is why specifications are so vital to the future of our industry, for without them, we can not move our profession ahead. Read more here>>>
Pruning large and mature trees focuses on ensuring human safety and passage, minimizing limb failure or total-tree failure near targets such as buildings and cars, and maintaining tree health and vigor. This means 1) minimizing hazardous conditions by reducing foliage mass and weight especially toward the ends of the largest and longest branches, 2) canopy raising where needed, and 3) removing dead branches while retaining small-diameter interior branches. It may be too late to make meaningful structural changes in trunk and scaffold limb architecture on some mature and over-mature trees. Read more here>>>