There are several important considerations for choosing trees for planting on your property. If you’ve purchased a home with established trees, hope that the previous owners kept the following in mind: tree hardiness, mature size, shade patterns, soil conditions, pollution tolerance, insect and disease resistance, natural strength and root behavior. With these points in mind, future maintenance is that much easier.

 Pruning dead, damaged and crossed branches will improve a tree’s health and appearance and controls its size. Stagnant trees can be brought back with severe pruning. The 2 kinds of pruning are thinning and heading. Thinning means removing a branch at its origin or cutting back to another lateral branch. This leaves the canopy less dense, more open and less susceptible to wind damage. Heading, or cutting back to a stub, creates new buds and vigorous foliage near the cut. Be sure to dress large tree wounds caused by pruning or wind damage to avoid disease and decay. Smaller wounds will heal by themselves.

Coniferous trees need less pruning than broadleaved deciduous trees. When conifers grow to within a foot of the size you want, cut new growth to one inch. The tree becomes more dense but will hold its size. Fruit tree pruning is tree-specific. A local nursery should have pruning tips for the type of fruit trees you have.

Proper tools make pruning easier and reduce the chance of injury to the tree. There are pruning shears and saws, pruning knives, pole pruners, chain saws and rasps. For best results, keep tools sharp and oiled. A good, safe stepladder and extension ladder are two of the most important pruning tools for easier and safer pruning work.

The basics of shrub pruning are simple. You need to know how to prune, what parts to prune and when to prune. Shrubs, like trees, are either evergreen or deciduous. The deciduous varieties are flowering or non-flowering. The 2 basic styles of pruning are the natural style, which follows the natural growth pattern of the plant and the formal style, which is a severe shaping of the plant such as box hedges. Both pruning styles can be used to create a pleasing and interesting landscape design. The time to prune depends on the type of shrub. Flowering shrubs require more attention to timing than non-flowering shrubs. Flowering shrubs divide into old wood flowerers and new wood flowerers. Don’t prune until you know which type you have. Shrubs that bloom in early spring bloom on old (last year’s) wood and should be pruned a week or two after the blooms drop off to avoid pruning dormant blossom buds off next year’s bloom. Shrubs that bloom in late spring or summer are blooming on new wood and should be pruned in the early spring to encourage more new stem growth resulting in more blossoms. The two basic types of shrub pruning are, like trees, thinning and heading. Thinning removes entire branches back to the trunk or ground, giving shrubs an open, natural look and produces larger shrubs. Heading is done through pinching and shearing. Heading results in a more dense shrub that has more branches but is smaller than a shrub that has been thinned. Thinning is more natural; heading is more formal.