Shaping versus pruning
Most shrubs need a light shaping once or twice a year to stay tidy. Shrubs that have been ignored for a few seasons need more than that. Rejuvenation pruning takes them back hard to healthy wood so they fill in from the inside again instead of being green on the outside and bare underneath. Our crew lead has done shrub pruning in three different regions of the country, so we know which plants can take a hard cut and which ones need a lighter hand.
When to trim
Spring, before the new growth takes off, is the best time for most shrubs. Fall is the other big window: a lot of customers want their bushes shaped before they hang Christmas lights. Spring-blooming shrubs like lilacs and forsythia get trimmed right after they flower, so you don't cut off next year's blooms.
Ornamental trees
Japanese maples and other small ornamentals get careful hand pruning: thinning crossing branches and opening up the canopy, not shearing.
Removal and cleanup
If a shrub is dead, diseased or just in the wrong place, we can pull it out. Every job ends with the beds raked out and the clippings hauled away.
