3 Reasons to Prune Your Trees and Shrubs

If your trees and shrubs look healthy, it can be tempting to just leave them be. Why mess with a good thing?

The problem is that if you don’t regularly prune your trees and shrubs, complications can emerge that will be harder to deal with in the long run. Your plants may get sick, stop growing well, and/or become huge and unattractive before you know it!

Here are the three primary reasons you should regularly prune your shrubs and trees:

1) For Shape and Aesthetics (Corrective Pruning)

Plants grow. If you leave them alone, they will grow, and grow, and grow.

No one wants their entire yard taken up by a huge tree that hides their entire house or shrubs that look like they’ve been mutated into monsters. It simply keeps your plants down to a size that looks best for your plot of land.

Every shrub or tree also has an ideal shape that allows it to grow quickly and maintain health. If you don’t actively prune your trees and shrubs, they may bend and twist in ways that will take away from their attractiveness. Pruning helps you guide the plant’s shape and aesthetic look.

2) For Health (Preventative Pruning)

If left to grow unhindered, many trees and plants can actually damage their health.

Branches can cross each other and too much leaf cover will block the sun from branches and leaves lower down on the tree. More branches and stems also require more nutrients from the soil and more work for the roots. By cutting backcrossed, dead, and damaged branches and materials, you can cut off disease in its tracks, and allow your plant to focus on growing its healthiest parts.

3) For Growth and Safety

Too much growth can tax a plant and exhaust the soil below.

Once a plant gets too big, it may be more likely to disease and may grow much more slowly. Pruning away excess branches and materials opens up more space for sunshine and CO2 to get through and also spurs the tree or shrub to start new, healthy growth.

You’ll also want to prune for safety if branches are getting too close to your home or power lines. You don’t want a big, heavy branch falling on your car or roof during a big storm!

Hire out professionals for your pruning needs

Large-scale pruning of trees and shrubs is not something we recommend for people who have little previous pruning experience. Every tree and shrub has its own ideal shape and pruning too much or the wrong way can actually hurt or even kill plants. It is best to hire a certified arborist for your pruning needs.

Contact Nature’s Elite to hire a highly qualified and experienced arborist to prune your trees and shrubs to perfection in Boise, Eagle, and Meridian.

We are here for you all year round call (208) 340-0820 to schedule your appointment today!