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For Residents; The Importance of Plant Pruning in Your Residential Landscape

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When it comes to pruning the plants and trees of your community landscape, your maintenance company has it covered. But what should you be doing when to comes to the landscape of your front yard? We have put together some information on the best practices for pruning your plant material to help keep your yard looking great year-round.

Why Prune?

There are many great benefits associated with proper trimming practices of your plants and trees. To start with, appropriately timed pruning of plant material encourages its natural cycle of bloom and dormancy and promotes growth/flowering as well. Pruning is a great way to help your landscape look its best year round and has positive long term health effects on your plants.

Additionally, practicing proper pruning techniques will ensure that plants do not out grow their designated space- encroaching onto sidewalks and driveways. This will keep them from obstructing nearby signage or views and keep them looking clean and tidy.

When to Prune

Now that you have an idea of how pruning your plant material can benefit your landscape, it is important to understand when the appropriate time to perform pruning is to ensure that you are able to enjoy these benefits!

Here in the Desert Southwest, we recommend following rejuvenation pruning schedules advised by experts such as the Arizona Landscape Contractors Association and Sustainable Landscape Management.

We also recommend referring to resources provided by your landscape management company, such as pruning schedules and species-specific plant information. Here at ELS, we have made resources for our large scale HOA communities to access and this is something that should be expected from your landscape management company as well.

Click Here to download our Free Pruning Schedule Guide

How to Properly Perform Rejuvenation Pruning

Rejuvenation Pruning is a type of pruning that is done annually, as needed, to ensure long term health of the plant. The time of pruning is different per plant species and is based on plant characteristics, blooming schedule, and growth pattern. This type of annual pruning helps you avoid excessively pruning your plant material which typically leads to stress to the plant thus requiring more water and resources to keep it alive.

By performing rejuvenation pruning according to the above schedule and keeping “here and there” pruning to a minimum, you will ensure long term health of your plant material and enhance seasonal bloom and color in your landscape!

For more information on how to prune, visit our blog post in the topic here.

RedBird

Rejuvenation Pruning; Red Birds of Paradise

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Red Bird of Paradise, also known as Caesalpinia Pulcherrima, is a perennial flowering shrub that is very popular in the desert landscape as it is low maintenance, affordable, and drought tolerant. These plants are known for their ability to grow to large sizes (up to 10-20 feet when mature) as well as for their beautiful red flowers that bloom in late Spring, making them the perfect additions to ant Arizona community.

Red Birds of Paradise are able to tolerate high Summer temperatures and can withstand extremely dry climates such as that of Arizona. However, when temperatures drop below freezing the plant will go dormant and lose its leaves until warmer temperatures arrive again in the Spring. This dormant period provides an opportune time to perform rejuvenation pruning on the plant to ensure that it is healthy year-round.

Rejuvenation Pruning of Red Birds of Paradise

Rejuvenation pruning is a type of pruning that is done seasonally, as needed, to ensure long term health of the plant. The time of pruning is different per plant based on blooming schedule, characteristics of the plant, and growth pattern. For the Red Bird of Paradise, proper time for rejuvenation pruning is when temperatures begin to cool in late Fall/early Winter and the plant begins to fall into dormancy, typically in the month of November.

Renovation style pruning has many benefits for the plant itself as well as for the overall landscape of a community. Reasons for this type of pruning range from encouraging natural growth and dormancy periods for various shrubs as well as ensuring that plants are able to perform optimally when renovation pruning is over and Spring time arrives again. It is important to remember that this type of pruning must be done during the appropriate time of the year as excessive pruning is detrimental to the health of the plant and places the shrubs in a constant state of stress.

Red Birds of Paradise will be pruned this season, prior to Winter, to avoid the natural die back to the ground they experience when temperatures drop below freezing. Pruning of these plants ensures that they look their best, maintain a nice shape, and handles any plants that may have grown into the sidewalks or grown to obstruct views of signs, driveways, and more.

These plants are large shrubs that serve as beautiful and easily maintained attractions in HOA communities. With the proper rejuvenation pruning and maintenance they can survive for many years and look amazing in any community, making them a favorite among homeowners and landscapers alike.

To learn more about the landscape in your area as well as what ELS Maintenance can do to keep it looking its best click here.

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treesinroad

Restorative Pruning For Storm Damaged Trees

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Has Monsoon Season taken a toll on your community, or residential, trees? With high winds and furious downpours of rain, our trees can take a beating during our seasonal storms!

The first step in addressing storm damage to a tree is evaluating whether the tree can be saved or, rather, the tree would be a hazard if left. Some factors in this decision are: the extent of the damage to the crown of the tree, the survivability of the tree, the direction of the crown after the damaged portion is removed, and the surrounding tree coverage in the growing area.

If the extent of the damage to the crown of the tree is severe, or the tree has multiple years of continuous damage repair, the tree might be a good candidate for removal. Continuing to restore the canopy year after year may lead to unnecessary elevation of the crown and leave the tree with branch attachments that are potentially weak and prone to breaking. This continued repair might also leave the tree in a state of recovery mode as it accelerates its growth response to combat infections, diseases, or pests. The tree can develop an abnormal amount of advantageous growth that is both weakly attached and aggressive in its nature to demand nutrient resources from the parent tree.

The survivability of the tree is important and should be taken in to consideration as it relates to the amount of damage a tree sustains. Some species of trees are better at recovering from split branches, trunk stress, and limb damage than others. Another consideration is what part of the tree was damaged. Trees, and branches, have apical growth points to them. This is the area that causes branches to become longer and trees to become taller. Typically, this area is located at the upper-center portion of the tree. With our desert trees being decurrent in growth, they may have multiple apical growth points which it easier to restructure a new crown that has extensive damage. A pine tree, should it lose the upper portion of the crown, might not be a good candidate for restorative pruning as once a pine tree loses its main (or apical) stem growth point a new one cannot be grown.

Another item to evaluate would be the direction of the crown of a tree once the damage is removed. At times, it’s necessary to remove damaged limbs that have fallen on a wall, or roadway, leaving the tree unbalanced and in a direction that is undesirable. This unbalanced tree structure, and as the tree puts new recovery growth on, can put additional stress on a portion of a tree that might’ve been accustomed to sharing the canopy weight over its entire structure system. Once that system is re-directed, the internal road map of the tree might become overloaded and cause a decline in the tree.

An additional factor in whether or not to select a tree for restorative repair is the surrounding trees. If the surrounding trees are great in number, healthy, and are only minimally damaged then the severely damaged tree might be selected for removal. Depending on the landscape in the area, a tree might instead be selected to be repaired on a temporary basis. A suggestion would be to plant a new tree nearby as the heavily damaged tree is removed in phases. This will give the new tree time to root in and grow as the older tree is removed.

After the evaluation has been completed, and the damaged trees are selected, develop a plan for the pruning of the damaged limbs. Limbs should be cut beyond the split, outside of the branch collar, or at the lateral branch along a desirable stem. Using the reduction pruning method on damaged branches can help re-direct growth so a new canopy can be developed. This method can also be used to reduce the branch length left after the damage has been removed to better balance the tree. Keep in mind, the extensive nature of some tree damage might take several seasons to repair. Using temporary branches (branches that are kept only for a season with the intention of removing them as soon as the tree recovers) can help the tree recover and develop new growth at a much healthier rate.

If possible, keep the overall ordinary pruning, such as: elevation pruning, co-dominant stem removal, thinning, crown cleaning, and crowding branch removal to a minimum as the tree recovers. A severely damaged tree will need all of its resources to recover from the damage, all while limiting the potential for infection by pest or disease.

Our Arbor team at ELS is happy to help develop a site specific plan for your tree recovery needs, including developing long term recovery plans for your community tree forest!

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