Charlotte:
Are your bushes growing out of control year after year and you can barely seem to get a handle on them? Trimming shrubs is an important task that will not only help keep your landscape looking much tidier for a long time to come, but it actually improved the health of your shrubs and allows them to have new healthy growths in the future.
The truth is, pruning & shrubbery reshaping can be more complicated than one may think. Keeping your landscape plants well-pruned is a bit more complex than just taking the hedge trimmer out whenever you feel as though the plants are becoming unruly. A pruning mistake can actually cost you the life of your plant – is that a risk you’re willing to take yourself?
When Can You Cut Back Bushes?
A lot of homeowners have questions in regard to the timing of pruning bushes. But there is no simple answer. That’s because the ideal timing is often dependent upon the plant variety. There are generally certain times of the year that are best for certain plants, and doing it at particular times like when they bloom could be devastating.
The trouble with pruning certain blooming plants, like Azaleas or Hydrangeas too late is that you can ruin the flowering ability of the plant for the coming season. Since pruning also encourages new growth, pruning too close to the cold season can leave your plant at risk of damage. Brand-new buds on a hydrangea, for instance, are going to die at the first deep freeze. Even worse, putting this type of stress on your plant could easily be the thing to kill it.
That’s not to say that all plants have such limited pruning timelines. There are some shrubs that can be pruned almost any time such as a Burning Bush or certain varieties of Hollies. But that’s why it’s important to know what you’re working with before you do any work.
A Note About Pruning Bushes with Fall Clean-Up
A lot of homeowners request pruning services in the fall as part of an overall effort to clean up their landscape before the winter and this can certainly be performed on many shrubs. Pruning bushes around the home makes them look drastically better just before visitors come for Thanksgiving or those holiday lights go on.
How Often Should Shrubs be Reshaped?
So, you’ve probably gathered that some shrubs are best pruned in the spring, some in the fall, and some can be pruned most times of the year. There’s a lot of nuance in there, and that’s why more often than not it’s best to just have some tree care professionals come in once or twice a year and take care of all the pruning you need.
The bare minimum plan for pruning is twice a year, but for most properties, this really isn’t enough to help keep your shrubs looking their best. You probably already know just how fast shrubs grow and start to look messy. If you wait too long, your shrubs will start to become an eyesore. We actually have a lot of our Gastonia tree service clients & Charlotte tree service clients bring us in every few months just to do upkeep on their shrub reshaping and keep them looking perfect.
So if your shrubs look bad or are growing out of control and you need help getting them wrangled in – the arborists at Treescape are here to help! Call us out and let us do our thing – you’ll be shocked at the difference it makes in how your home looks overall.