Tree, Palm & Shrub Trimming

Most palms need attention once or twice a year. Coconut palms often need more because of seed pods and nut fall over walkways, driveways and pool decks — a falling coconut is a real hazard. Self-cleaning palms like royals shed their own fronds and mostly need the dropped material picked up.

A hurricane cut strips a palm back to just a few upright fronds. It is common and it is damaging. The fronds are the palm’s food source and its stored nutrients, so over-pruning weakens the tree, narrows the trunk at that point and actually makes it more likely to snap in wind, not less. Proper practice is to remove only fronds that are dead, dying or hanging well below horizontal.

Do it before June 1. Clearing dead fronds, loose seed pods and dead wood ahead of the season removes what becomes airborne in a storm. Trying to book palm work as a storm approaches is difficult — every crew in the county is doing the same thing.

Through our long growing season, hedges here typically need trimming every six to ten weeks to stay tight. Cutting a hedge slightly wider at the bottom than the top lets light reach the lower branches, which is what keeps the base from going bare and woody.

We handle trimming, shaping, thinning and storm cleanup. Large tree removals and anything requiring climbing or crane work are best handled by a licensed tree service, and we will tell you plainly when a job falls into that category.