Topping/ pruning

Hi all,

Tere are a few things i need to trim, but not sure when, any advice gratefully received.

1. 30ft silver birch, trim and topping
2. Large beech tree, 30 ft, trim and topping
3. 12ft thick Leylandi hedges, 20 ft high, if i cut back to the brown, will it recover, or is it stay in the green?
4. Lots of different shrubs/ bushes incl Pheasant berry, hydrangea, buddlea,passion flower

thankyou

Gareth

 

I'm not a tree expert but hope this might help. The birch and beech I would leave until they are dormant, the winter months.

Unfortunately Leylandii will not recover once it has turned brown. Those parts are dead. So if you trim the green parts back, that is the only place you will get re-growth. My neighbour and I are about to remove his 80ft hedge which is partly dead and also because of root invasion.

With regards to the other shrubs, because they are all different, I would be inclined to say prune them once they've finished flowering.

 

"Lots of different shrubs/ bushes incl Pheasant berry, hydrangea, buddlea,passion flower"

Shrubs usually need pruning at different times of the year; for example Buddlea I would prune it back by half at the beginning of autumn to prevent 'root rock' in the winter and then cut it back to the second or third pair of healthy buds in early spring (late Feb/earlyMarch).

Hydrangea I'm sure benefits from simply removing the dead flower heads in the spring as new growth starts; prune back to the first (highest) healthy pair of buds unless of course you want to reduce the size of the plant.

Here is a link to a pruning calendar for many shrubs, hope this helps a little;

http://www.gardenseeker.com/pruning/pruning_calendar_for_shrubs.html

:thumb:

 

Hi there, I'm a Tree Surgeon & would go along with the advice already given here. Although work can be carried out on trees at pretty much any time of the year it is always best to wait until they are dormant. As already mentioned the Lleylandii will not regrow if you cut back to the brown, there are certain conifers that will but they are few & far between in my experience. As for the shrubs, I cut my Buddleia down to the ground in winter & they come back like crazy every spring, my other shrubs I keep trimmed to the desired height.
Hope this helps.
Lee

 

Hi Gareth

I would just like to add that topping of trees is professionally seen as bad tree care practice as it harms the tree and leads to future problems later on. I don't know whether you were going to have a go yourself on the trees or not, but I would strongly recommend hiring in a professional arborist/tree surgeon to carry out the work. You, and your trees, will benefit from it.

 

Hi all,
Thanks for your advice.
The main issue with the Leylandi, is they are the main hedges on both sides of my garden and are around 100ft long, 18 ft high and 10ft thick, every year i spend around 2 or 3 days trimming them and taking 36 dumpy bags to the tip.
They are well established and around 20 years old.

But without them on one side we would be overlooked, i need something to replace them thats easier to manage, but needs to be at that height.

And obviously dont want to wait 20 years for them to get that high,, any ideas??

The trees were allowed to get far to big a long time ago.

Thanks for your healp

 

there are some non-invasive bamboos that are evergreen, look good and grow very fast and very tall ... they also don't need any top pruning

prices may be a bit 'steep though' ... but worthwhile investigating further ... there is a bamboo forum on the internet aswell

here is an example

Jungle Giants Fargesia robusta (Campbell) | Jungle Giants

and a few more:
Bamboo Screens and Hedges