Tree Pruning and Tree Services in Pakenham

Correct to cut now: oaks, liquidambars and ornamental pears while they are leafless and the branch structure is readable; apples, pears and nashi, which are dormant; hydrangeas; and repeat-flowering roses. The Rose Society of Victoria puts rose pruning in June or July and specifically advises against going earlier than July in most areas, because an early cut can push shoots that then get burnt off. On the corridor that gives a working window of roughly early July to early August, so right now is inside it.

Leave alone: apricots and cherries, which should strictly avoid winter pruning. Melbourne's cold damp winters favour bacterial canker entering fresh cuts, and dormant wood is slow to seal. Peaches, nectarines and plums are the same mechanism and only tolerate light work in a genuinely dry spell. Maples and birches bleed sap heavily from late-winter cuts. Rhododendrons and azaleas have already set the buds for their spring display, so a cut now removes the flowers rather than the plant.

Dead, damaged or hazardous wood is the exception to all of it and comes off in any season, on any species.

The other half of the Pakenham job is the young estate trees. The ornamental pears, crepe myrtles and small gums that builders and landscapers put in over the past decade are at the age where five minutes of formative pruning prevents a structural problem that is expensive to correct at fifteen years. Winter is the right time to do it on the deciduous ones, because you can actually see what you are cutting.

Stump grinding and any work requiring climbing, an elevated work platform or staged rigging is arranged through trusted specialist partners; our in-house arborist work is pruning and removal within safe reach.