Best Trees to Plant

Tree trimming tips

Keep your trees trimmed on schedule and they'll stay healthier, look better, and drop fewer surprise branches on your car. Skip the trimming, and you'll pay more for it later, either in removal costs or insurance claims.

Hire a certified arborist for anything more than a hand pruner can handle. I'll explain DIY techniques below, but large limb work belongs to professionals. An arborist costs $200 to $800 for a typical yard tree. An ER visit after a branch falls on you costs a lot more.

Hire a pro for big jobs

Young trees need frequent light pruning to remove lower limbs and shape the canopy. You can do that yourself. Larger, mature trees need to be thinned every 3 to 5 years by a professional to keep the canopy healthy and reduce wind resistance.

When hiring, look for ISA (International Society of Arboriculture) certification. Ask for proof of insurance covering property damage, personal liability, and worker compensation. Call the insurer to verify. Here's a deeper guide on how to vet and choose an arborist who won't butcher your trees.

Safety first

If you're trimming yourself, follow these rules:

  1. Check for power lines. If the tree is anywhere near utility lines, call the power company. They'll ground, shield, or de-energize the lines. Do not touch any branch near a power line yourself.
  2. Wear protection. Hard hat, safety goggles, and gloves. Falling branches are heavier than you expect.
  3. Start from the top, work down. Broken branches above can fall on you while you're focused on the branch below.
  4. Watch for spring-back. If younger trees are nearby, a cut branch can fall into their branches, spring back, and hit you. This happens to professionals too.

Choose the right tools

  • Hand pruners: For small branches (under 1/2 inch). Make sure the blades are sharp enough to cut cleanly without tearing bark.
  • Loppers: For branches 1/2 inch to 2 inches. Long handles give leverage.
  • Pruning saws: For branches 2 to 4 inches. Most cut on the pull-stroke. Many styles have replaceable blades.
  • Pole pruners: For out-of-reach branches. Saw blades can be attached to the head for larger limbs.
  • Chain saws: For large branches. Only use if you have real experience. Storm-damaged trees under tension can release stored energy unpredictably when cut.

Clean your tools with soap and water after each tree. Dirty blades transfer disease from one tree to another. This is especially important if you're pruning a tree you suspect is diseased.

When to trim (timing matters)

Wrong timing can kill a tree or prevent it from flowering the next year.

  • Flowering trees: Trim within three weeks after blooming finishes. Any later and you'll cut off next year's flower buds.
  • Oaks: Only trim November through March. Trimming April through October exposes them to oak wilt disease, which is often fatal.
  • Conifers: Trim during dormancy (late fall/winter) to minimize sap and resin flow from cuts.
  • Crepe myrtles: Trim in late February before new growth starts. Not in June. Not in October. February. See our complete crepe myrtle trimming guide for the full details.
  • Most deciduous trees: Late winter (January-March) while dormant but before spring bud break is ideal.

For a detailed timing guide, see when to trim your tree.

How to cut a branch correctly

Look at the base of any branch where it meets the trunk. You'll see a slightly swollen area called the "collar." That collar is where the tree's natural defense system lives. Cut just outside the collar. Never cut into it, and never leave a long stub.

The three-cut method for large branches

For branches bigger than 2 inches, use three cuts to prevent the bark from tearing down the trunk:

  1. Undercut first. About 12 to 18 inches from the trunk, cut upward from the bottom about one-third of the way through the branch. This prevents bark tearing.
  2. Cut from the top. About 3 inches farther out from your undercut, saw downward through the branch. The branch will break away cleanly between your two cuts.
  3. Final cut. Now cut the remaining stub just outside the collar. The branch is short and light now, so it won't tear bark.

What NOT to do

Don't top your trees

"Topping" means cutting all the main branches back to stubs. Some people think this reduces the risk of branches breaking in storms. It does the opposite.

Stubs grow back as clusters of weakly attached sprouts. Those sprouts grow fast, don't attach strongly to the stub, and are more likely to break in the next storm than the original branches were. A topped tree is weaker, uglier, and more likely to die.

Never let anyone top your trees. If a "tree service" suggests it, find a different company. Any ISA-certified arborist will tell you the same thing.

Don't over-prune

Never remove more than 25% of a tree's canopy in a single year. The tree needs those leaves to produce food. Over-pruning stresses the tree and slows recovery, especially after storm damage.

Don't paint the wounds

Old advice said to seal pruning cuts with tar or wound paint. Current research shows this actually traps moisture and encourages decay. Make a clean cut and let the tree heal itself. It knows what it's doing.

Bottom line

Small branches and young trees are DIY territory. Anything you need a ladder for, or anything over 4 inches in diameter, call a certified arborist. The cost is real (budget $200-800 per tree every 3-5 years), but it's cheap compared to removing a tree you killed by bad pruning or paying the medical bills from a branch that fell on you.

If you're dealing with storm-damaged trees, read our guide before you pick up a saw. Stressed trees need different treatment than healthy ones.