The trees got their annual trim

I have a tree service in on an annual basis but I don't have every one of them trimmed each year.  However, this year, I included more of them than usual.  This year's exercise included pruning fourteen trees and four tree-sized shrubs, as well as the removal of two dead shrubs and shearing the tall hedge that backs our lath house.  It took the entire day. 

The house and garden had a lovely peppermint scent that day as all six of the Agonis flexuosa (aka peppermint willows) were trimmed.  I think sending the mass of that debris through the chipper is what perfumed the air.

This one on the south end of the back garden is the largest .  It singularly accounts of much of the shade in my back garden but it'll be sunnier now for a time.

This Agonis sits in the northwest corner of the front garden near the property line.  It's always been more wispy than the tree shown in the prior photo.  I don't have it pruned often.

This one alongside the driveway entrance is also on the wispy side and seldom trimmed

The 2 Agonis located directly behind the front hedge along the street may get trimmed the most frequently.  They're more prone to wind damage it seems.

This one on the south side of the garden has always looked a little wonky

The Arbutus 'Marina' (aka strawberry trees) do get trimmed annually.  A good cleanup of the trees' dense interior canopies is necessary to prevent black mildew from forming.  Pruning temporarily reduces the volume of flowers, beloved by hummingbirds, but it keeps the trees healthy and the canopies quickly flesh out.

These 2 Arbutus sit on the north end of back garden

This Arbutus on the northwest side of the front garden presents the trickiest pruning challenge due to all the succulents planted below it.  The agaves suffered "edema" (damage to their leaves) when they were covered by a tarp 2 years ago but the team avoids using those now.

This Arbutus on the south end of the front garden sits atop a moderate slope, also planted with agaves and other succulents

The other trees that received beauty treatments this year include:

Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' almost got lost on the list but I pointed it out before the team left and one of the crew did a neat job of cleaning it up 

Pruning this lime citrus tree (Citrus aurantiifolia) is a last chance try at saving it.  I inherited it with the garden and while it still produces a lot of fruit, they're tiny and we've little use for them.  It's in the cutting garden area and sited next to the former fence.  If the lime tree is eventually removed, that space may provide me an opportunity to install a small greenhouse.  The fence behind it separates our property from our neighbor on the north side.

The Magnolia grandiflora is another tree that receives an annual pruning.  The principal purpose is to clear its canopy from the roof.

The ornamental pear tree, Pyrus calleryana, is a messy thing, dropping both leaves and inedible fruit that even the critters don't seem to care for.  The debris has been substantially reduced (for now). 

We have eight other trees I didn't include, three additional citrus, two western redbuds (Cercis occidentalis), two pineapple guavas (Feijoa sellowiana), a noID guava (maybe Psidium guajava), and two persimmons (Diospyros kaki).  In retrospect, I wish I'd thrown in at least the redbuds and one of the persimmons, as well as the lemon tree at the bottom of the slope.

Some of my tree-sized shrubs have gotten so large that they're hard for me to handle:

This is Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid'.  It replaced another tall Agonis flexuosa that a former neighbor bullied me into removing based on the claim that it blocked her view of the port years ago.

I used to prune these 2 'Copper Glow' Leptospermums myself, which took hours and hours.  Last year, I decided to hand the chore off to the tree service, which does the job in a fraction of the time it took me.

Leucadendron salignum 'Chief' is another plant that outgrew expectations.  There was one large limb that stretched along the ground and rested its heavy branches on the hedge behind it.  I'm a little concerned that lopping off that limb may kill it but the service did a clean job of removing it at least.  I still have more work to do to cut away the remaining dead foliage. 

The removals (not photographed) included a dead Ceanothus arboreus, also tree-sized, and a large Coprosma repens.  The much-loved Ceanothus 'Clifford Schmidt', which I'd planted from a one-gallon pot, dropped dead in late spring after ten years in the ground.  The tall Coprosma 'Plum Hussey' was poorly placed and was effectively strangled by a rampant honeysuckle vine that crept up from the upper area of the back slope.

The tree service did a great job of cleanup, although leaves and small branches continue to fall as expected.  There was relatively little collateral damage this year, although I lost a branch with Tillandsias wired onto it, which I'd stupidly left on the ground below two of the trees slated for trimming - it must have picked up with the debris and that's entirely my fault as I usually do a better job of clearing work areas before the crew arrives.  However, without an extra charge, the service agreed to send the fence boards my husband recently removed through their chipper, saving him weeks of parsing that out in stages using our recycle bins so that's a win. 

We received some more rain on Thursday, which may spill over into Friday.  From there, we expect some dry, sunny days to carry us through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Best wishes for a pleasant weekend.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party