WHY IS WINTER THE BEST TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR TREES
It seems counterintuitive but winter is a great time to evaluate your trees. More importantly, it’s the ideal time to work on your trees. Instinctively we think spring and summer are the best time. Probably because the warm weather and all the spring activity make us the most connected to our yards. It’s not a bad time to maintain your plants but there is a lot going on. Your landscape looks its best. The flowers, woody plants, and lawn are all at their peak and unfortunately their most fragile. The plants are actively working; absorbing water, photosynthesizing, storing food, and growing.
Although it’s a good time to evaluate plant health it is not the best time to work on the plants. The risk of interrupting metabolic functions, making a mess, and causing damage is at its highest.
EVALUATING DECIDUOUS TREES
Evaluating your deciduous trees is always easier after the leaves drop. Cavities, cankers, broken limbs, and other structural defects are easier to spot. This allows us to come up with the best plan for each tree.
Some will need modest pruning; some may need structure pruning and some may need to come down. We can look at all your trees and shrubs to provide you, with our expert opinion. Armed with this information you can make a plan.
WHY IS WINTER THE RIGHT TIME FOR TREE CARE?
LESS ACTIVE
In the late fall and winter, trees are dormant. So, pruning your woody plants does not interfere with the plant’s natural functions. Since your property like the trees is also less active this is the best time to do large-scale tree care.
This is much less invasive to your landscape. We are always as careful as we can be but the risk of crushed flowers and damaged lawns is dramatically reduced. Especially if we have snow cover or frozen ground.
PERFECT FOR PRUNING
Late winter is a great time to prune your evergreens and rejuvenate old shrubs. Usually late February or March (depending on the length of the winter) is the best time to do aggressive pruning. If you have overgrown, privet, lilac, forsythia, red stem dogwood, and a few others we can cut stocks back aggressively or right to the ground.
These types of plants respond very well sending out sprouts to defend themselves. The reason we do this in March is so we capture all the energy that goes into pushing new growth and it responds to the wounding.
All plants react to wounding but these plants respond very aggressively sending out new shoots that form a new younger stalk.
SHORTEN EVERGREENS
This same principle works when you shorten evergreens. When you shorten these limbs back to foliage (you should not leave stubs) this helps to encourage lower interior growth. After this lower interior growth matures you have something to prune back to in the future.
Over the course of time, you can shrink an overgrown plant and not have to remove it. Most evergreens will respond well to late winter pruning but yews, hollies, andromedas and small leaf rhododendrons react the best in our area.
WHAT MAKES THIS WINTER DIFFERENT?
This winter will be particularly interesting due to all the rain the summer and fall provide. The trees are well hydrated which means there will be much less winter burn on evergreens and probably no loss of flower buds like last year.
However, all the rain also made the trees grow more than usual. This additional growth combined with a heavy fruit set means they may be more vulnerable to heavy snow and wind.
GET YOUR TREES EVALUATED BY THE PROFESSIONALS
WINTER IS THE BEST TIME TO EVALUATE YOUR TREES
Please contact us for a complimentary assessment of your property. We can help you take advantage of the best season for woody plant maintenance. Let us help you make your property safe, vigorous, and beautiful.
If you have questions about tree service or plant health care or would like an estimate, give us a call at 978-768-6999 or click here to contact us.
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