Pruning

In any given landscape, a tree or palm is almost always the tallest component.  Because of their size, it has typically been a tradition that pruning of trees and palms was performed by a separate contractor.  We believe the entire landscape is the responsibility of the maintenance contractor.  For this very reason we have our own in-house tree trimming crew and desire to perform our own tree care where it makes sense.

Tree pruning is part science, art, and safety.  We take it seriously.

The science involves an understanding of a tree’s growth from the juvenile stage through maturity.   It is important to know how trees heal themselves and initiate new growth.  Knowledge of differing species needs and characteristics are vital.

The art in tree pruning relates to the finished product delivered to the customer after pruning is complete.  Is the tree symmetrical after pruning.  Is there even distribution and layering of primary and secondary branches?  Do neighboring trees match each other in terms of scale?

Pruning is one of the most dangerous occupations when working with trees.  Because of this, safety for our tree workers and our customers is a constant consideration and we obsess over.

Health

Trees occupy such an important part of our landscape.  People who interact with your sites are likely to walk under your trees, have your trees growing between them and their neighbors, or experience leisure activities under your trees on a hot day. It is vital to continually monitor tree health in a landscape from a liability and asset preservation standpoint. Much like with humans, when a tree is stressed it becomes more prone to having health issues. These health issues range from insect infestations to diseases to abiotic disorders.  When a health issue is suspect, it is important to ensure a correct diagnosis before developing a treatment program.  You can find out more about specific issues here in the Plant Health Care portion of our web site. Trees typically reside in very conspicuous places.  This almost always makes it impossible to spray the entire tree in the middle of the day.  Luckily, we have years of experience with alternate methods of treatment that actually are effective and impact your customers the least.

Cleanliness

Besides the pleasing and good aspects trees have, there are also negative characteristics that trees exhibit.  All landscape trees drop leaves, create seeds and fruit, have roots that can grow out of control, and require water to live. Throughout the years, property managers have desperately tried to prevent pine needles from falling, olives from forming, seeds from dropping, and leaves from littering sidewalks in the fall.  We have experimented with various methods on behalf of our customers including: A tree shaker to remove nuisance seed production on Liquidambar trees as seen here. The use of chemicals to lessen the impact of fruit production on Ficus trees. Setting up a pruning program on Olive trees where one prune is done when flower set occurs then a second prune again in late summer to remove whatever fruit remains. Daily leaf clean up and street sweeping during leaf fall of Sycamore trees.