The trees and hedges we work on

Why the species changes the job

Three things vary enormously between species and drive nearly every decision we make: how the tree responds to being cut, how heavy the wood is per metre, and when in the year it can safely be worked. A birch and an oak of the same height are not the same job, and pricing them the same would be wrong in both directions.

Oak

The heavyweight. Dense timber, so a limb weighs far more than it looks and rigging gear gets sized accordingly. Oaks are long-lived and tolerate careful reduction, but they resent heavy cutting and are best worked in modest steps over years rather than in one big reduction. Mature oaks are also the species most likely to carry a Tree Preservation Order round here, so the register check matters more than usual. High water demand on clay, which is why oaks feature in most subsidence conversations.

Beech

Beautiful, thin-barked and unforgiving. Beech does not compartmentalise decay well, so large cuts on a mature tree are an invitation to problems, and the honest advice is usually to reduce lightly or not at all. As a hedge it is completely different: beech takes a hard cut, regenerates from old wood, and holds its brown leaves through winter, which is why it is the standard formal hedge here.

Lime

The classic suburban avenue tree, and the one that generates most of the complaints. Limes throw dense epicormic growth from the trunk and any cut point, so they need going over on a cycle rather than once. They also host aphids in quantity, and the honeydew that falls on cars underneath is the real reason most people ring about a lime. Reduction helps; nothing eliminates it short of removal.

Ash

The difficult one at the moment. Ash dieback has moved through this part of the country and an infected ash becomes brittle in a way that changes how it can be worked: the wood loses its flex, so climbing a badly affected tree is not safe and it has to come down from a platform or in a different sequence entirely. That changes the price. If you have an ash showing dieback in the crown, get it looked at while it is still climbable, because the job gets more expensive the longer it is left.

Sycamore and maple

Vigorous, fast, and prolific seeders. Sycamore takes reduction well and comes back quickly, so it wants a cycle. Both bleed heavily if cut in late winter, which is harmless to the tree but looks alarming, so we tend to work them in summer instead.

Birch

Light, elegant, shallow-rooted and short-lived by tree standards. Birch does not respond well to heavy reduction and generally looks wrong afterwards, so with birch the honest choice is usually leave it or take it out. Like maple, it bleeds if cut in late winter. The good news is that a birch is a much lighter and quicker tree to dismantle than its height suggests.

Willow and poplar

Fast, wet, heavy and structurally weak. Willows shed limbs and both species have the highest water demand of anything commonly planted in a garden, which puts them near the top of every subsidence list. Both also sucker enthusiastically from roots after removal, so a stump grind does not always end the story. Neither belongs within a few metres of a house on clay, and if you have inherited one that close, that is worth a conversation.

Conifers, and leylandii in particular

The rule that catches people out: conifers do not shoot from brown wood. A leylandii, thuja or cypress hedge can be topped and kept trimmed, but the sides can only be taken back to the edge of the green. Cut past that and the face stays brown permanently. There is no product and no technique that changes this. Anyone who tells you a fifteen-year-old leylandii will fill back in from bare wood is selling you something.

Yew is the exception among evergreens: it will regenerate from old wood, which is why ancient yew hedges can be brought back from almost nothing.

Hornbeam, hawthorn, privet, laurel and holly

The hedges that can be rescued. All of these regenerate from old wood, so a neglected boundary can be cut hard, usually in stages over two or three seasons, and will come back thick. Laurel is best cut with secateurs or a hedge knife rather than a flail if you care how it looks, because shredded laurel leaves go brown at the edges and stay that way until the next flush.

Fruit trees

Apples and pears are pruned in winter for structure and in summer to control vigour and improve fruiting. Plums, cherries and other stone fruit are pruned in summer only, because winter cuts leave them open to silver leaf. Old orchard trees in the longer village gardens round here are often worth restoring rather than replacing, and that is a two or three season job, not one afternoon.

What this means for your quote

When you ring, telling us the species, roughly the height and what is underneath gets you a far more useful conversation than a photograph alone. If you do not know what it is, that is completely fine: send a photo of the leaf and the bark and we will tell you.