Pruning helps improve traffic flow around a tree by removing branches and limbs that hang over sidewalks, roadways, and other pedestrian areas. It also helps ensure clear views for traffic-related signage.
Proper pruning encourages new growth, blooms, and fruit production. It also keeps trees healthy and prevents damage to structures and property.
Healthy Branches
Trees that are overgrown and ill-shaped pose a threat to property, people, and cars. They are a fire hazard when they hang over structures such as homes and buildings, and can be a fall hazard during a heavy storm. Branches that break off or weaken are projectiles that can damage your home or car and hurt people and pets. Proper pruning is necessary to maintain the integrity of a tree and prevent these kinds of hazards.
The most important reason to prune trees is that it helps them stay healthy. By removing unhealthy branches, you open up the canopy of your plant to more sunlight and air, making it healthier and more beautiful. In addition, pruning can also address structural defects, such as leaning trunks and crooked limbs, as well as reduce the spread of disease or insects by stopping the spread of disease-carrying insect pests from one branch to another.
Pruning is also an effective way to remove dead or dying branches, removing these tripping hazards and reducing the risk of failure during storms. A well-trained and experienced arborist can help you determine which branches to remove, ensuring that your plants remain healthy and vibrant.
While many people think of pruning as simply removing dead or broken limbs, it’s actually a much more involved process. Many plants, including broadleaf evergreens (such as rhododendron, mountain laurel, and pieris), can be rejuvenated with regular pruning. This procedure removes old, discolored, or damaged wood and stimulates the growth of new foliage and stems.
Ideally, all pruning cuts should be made to just outside of the collar, an area of natural shedding around the base of a branch that contains chemically protective tissue that encourages fast wound sealing. It is important to avoid using paint or shellac on the cut surface of a pruned branch, as these products can shelter disease organisms and slow the wound-healing process.
When a tree is properly pruned, the result is an attractive and balanced appearance that enhances any landscape. It can also add significant value to your property, especially if you have mature trees on your land.
Aesthetics
Besides keeping the health and safety of trees, pruning and trimming also contributes to their beauty. In fact, it can transform a dull-looking shrub or tree into a stunning focal point in the landscape. The art of aesthetic pruning involves a thoughtful assessment of the garden context, including sun and wind patterns, viewpoints and scale. It also includes a deep understanding of the unique qualities and needs of each particular tree species.
Many people confuse aesthetic pruning with general maintenance pruning, but there are clear differences between the two. While aesthetic pruning does involve removing diseased, damaged, dead or unproductive branches, it also focuses on the structural integrity of the plant and achieving specific form. Structural pruning also involves the removal of suckers, water sprouts and other lateral branches that steal energy from the main trunk and canopy. In addition, it promotes a natural, graceful transition from coarse to fine branching.
In the garden, this often translates to creating a unified and balanced composition, with the right balance of light and dark in the structure. It can even evoke a sense of awe and drama, for example in the sculptural forms of boxwood topiary or apple trees trained as espaliers. It is important to understand that pruning for aesthetics is a process that takes time and patience, especially for young plants as they grow into their mature shapes.
A good rule of thumb is to prune when a plant’s leaves are fully developed but before the end of summer. It is easier to see what is being cut, and the plants will have time to recover before winter.
Another sign that a tree is in need of pruning is if it’s growing too close or on top of power lines, or if it has become a hazard during heavy storms. These types of issues can be dangerous and may require an immediate response by a professional.
The final reason for pruning a tree is to improve traffic and pedestrian flow, especially when the branches are overhanging buildings or sidewalks. Oftentimes, these branches can become a tripping hazard or break during a storm and cause damage to property or injury to someone.
Safety
A tree can become hazardous if it grows too large for its space. When this occurs, branches can rub against the roof or walls of a home or break and fall during a storm. This poses a fire hazard close to homes and can also interfere with power lines. In addition, limbs hanging over a road or sidewalk can cause injuries to pedestrians and slow traffic flow. Regular pruning helps prevent these issues by keeping plants in their proper form.
Another benefit of pruning is that nearby trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass can receive more resources such as sunlight and water from the sun. This is particularly important for landscape plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, mountain laurel, and flowering plum that bear their flowers on wood produced that year or in the previous year. Removing dead, dying, damaged, disease-infected, codominant, or crossing limbs can promote their health and encourage new growth that will be borne on the same wood.
Some pruning is done for aesthetic reasons to improve the look of a garden. For example, removing dead or dying limbs, thinning to enhance light penetration, and training for special effects like espaliering are examples of this type of pruning. However, this kind of pruning should only be performed by a qualified professional because it can affect the health and structure of a plant.
A good pruning program will remove any dead, damaged, or diseased limbs from a tree. It will also reduce a plant’s overall size by making the necessary structural cuts. This can be important for the health of a tree and to minimize its impact on structures such as houses or power lines.
Branches that have grown too long or wide will be pruned to correct this problem. This will usually include a combination of crown thinning, crown raising, crown reduction, and other structural pruning methods. Typically, the largest cuts are made on mature trees with thick canopies. These cuts may be needed to shorten a branch that is inching into utility lines or to reduce the width of a dense tree.
For comprehensive tree care, including professional tree removal services, consult experts to ensure the safety and health of your property’s greenery.
Reduced Risk
Trees and shrubs that are pruned regularly have a more uniform look to them. This creates a more attractive landscape and helps improve curb appeal. It also keeps pests away from these healthy plants. This can help your home or commercial property stand out from the competition and increase its value.
Proper pruning also reduces safety hazards. Overgrown limbs can fall during severe weather conditions, causing serious damage to structures and people. Weak and dying branches can also fall during storms, posing an even greater danger to those underneath them. Trees that are located near sidewalks, pathways and driveways should be pruned to remove any runaway limbs that could cause an accident.
Lastly, the regular removal of dead or dying branches from your trees and shrubs will lessen the chance of disease spreading to other parts of the plant. A simple pruning technique called thinning is used to cut back to a healthy lateral branch that is at least one-third the size of the branch being removed. This allows light and air to reach all areas of the canopy and stimulates new growth.
Another benefit of pruning is that it can minimize wind damage by reducing the degree to which a crown is exposed to wind. When a tree is thinned, the remaining dominant branches will become stronger, making them less likely to break under heavy winds.
Aside from removing unhealthy or dead branches, pruning is also often used to shape plants into specific forms. This can include hedges, espaliers, topiaries and pollards.
The best time to prune is after the plant has finished flowering, which happens in the spring for deciduous trees and late winter or early spring for evergreens. However, the type of plant and climate conditions will influence when it is most beneficial to prune. Pruning at the wrong time of year can cause serious injury to a tree or shrub and may result in the spread of disease. It is also important to avoid pruning during the summer when trees and shrubs are putting on a lot of new growth.
