Proper pruning enhances the Natural beauty aesthetics of any apartment community landscaping or commercial office property, while frequent hedge trimming with power equipment not only increases labor costs, but can ruin or greatly reduce its landscape potential. By using improper pruning methods, healthy plants become part of an unattractive crowd.
Does this landscape problem sound like yours? Seven years ago we purchased a new commercial building that was new and installed by a professional landscape company. The shrubs were attractive for the first few years until they began to grow too wide for their limited planter spaces and too tall for the buildings windows and signage. Now they have lost all their individuality and have become square or rounded hedges. Is it too late to remedy our situation or do we just need to tear them out and start over?
This situation is quite common. Small shrubs are often planted close together so they give a more immediate effect. They soon grow together and lose their individual identity. Shrubs are planted which have a mature size larger than the space where they were intended for. Soon aggressive yearly pruning is a must to keep them in bounds. When shrubs are pruned with power hedge trimmers they form many branches and have very thick foliage growth — like hedges.
It may not be too late to recover natural shape and thickness of your shrubs through a renewal process called renovation pruning. There are a few shrubs which can be cut back to a foot above the ground. They will regrow with more normal shape and look more attractive without having to be replaced.
The best solution to this problem is to design and re-landscape using compact varieties of shrubs which require only limited pruning. When selecting shrubs, they should be carefully researched to find their mature height and width. They should also be chosen for their climate zone adaptation and for their sun and shade exposure preferences. Other qualities such as fall leaf color, foliage color, leaf texture and flower production can also be just as important as size. Many plant labels contain this information. However, it is easy to check the internet for any plant name and find several references about a plant’s characteristics. Book stores, libraries and County Master Gardener offices have horticultural reference books as well.
Smaller varieties of trees and shrubs are widely available. These smaller varieties are often more expensive than larger, faster growing ones. In many cases they are available only in full service nurseries and not in the “Big Box” retailers. They will give many years of satisfactory performance with limited maintenance requirements and are worth the added net cost.
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FloraTerra provides tree and commercial hoa landscaping services in and around the San Francisco and San Jose Bay Area, we design, install and maintain silicon valley landscaping for business parks, Hospitals, Apartments and Home Owners Associations. We provide a complete range of landscaping and water conservation services. Some of our landscaping services include smart irrigation controllers and drought tolerant landscaping / care. We serve a variety of markets including: HOA Landscaping Services , Commercial Office Properties, Retail Shopping Centers & Malls, Industrial R&D, Condominium Landscaping Services, Public & Municipal Properties and Large scale corporate campus type properties.
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