A conifer hedge offers privacy all year round and is a real eye-catcher in the home garden. To ensure that it grows opaquely, topiary pruning in spring is crucial. How and when exactly you should cut your cypress trees – we will now tell you in the article.
Cypresses are evergreen hedge plants. Depending on the variety, they grow up to 5 meters high and a hedge grows to around 3 meters high. So that the trees quickly reach their maximum height and branch well, they should be cut twice a year. The first time is in spring after the permanent frost has passed. The second time is at the end of August, after the plant's growth phase ends.
Spring is the right time for a more vigorous pruning. Even young plants can tolerate this better because they then have enough time to recover before winter. Thenourishing topiaryYou can do this on a frost-free but cloudy day. Strong sunlight can burn the sensitive cypress trees, and rain can cause the branches to rot.
Cypress trees are poisonous to people and animals, so you should wear gardening gloves and safety glasses when cutting. You can use branch or cordless hedge trimmers for cutting.
How do you trim a conifer hedge?
A cypress hedge is cut before the start of the new gardening season, before the plants sprout again. Proceed as follows:
- Annual cypress trees are pruned after the permanent frost has ended. Around the end of February, wilted and diseased side shoots can be removed and healthy side shoots can be shortened by a third.
- Two-year-old conifers are also only shortened on the sides - the young plants may only be shortened from above when they have reached their maximum growth height. However, sparing pruning keeps them in the desired growth habit and helps the conifers to branch more quickly and form an opaque hedge.
- Cut perennial conifers that have already reached their maximum growth height as follows: The main shoots are shortened by around 15 cm.
- The hedge is cut so that it has a trapezoidal structure. It should be wide at the bottom and then narrow towards the top. This specific topiary gives the plants more stability, increases their resistance to strong winds and storms and improves the ventilation of the individual branches. In the end, they dry faster. The hedge is cut flat at the top. This creates an A-shape that guarantees that all parts of the plant receive sufficient sunlight.
- The cypress hedge is never cut back to the old wood because it cannot sprout again from the trunk. Bald spots are simply removed. The cut encourages branching and ensures that the hedge becomes dense on the sides and top.
Cutting cypress trees: How to regulate the height of the hedge
Once the hedge has reached its maximum height, it should be trimmed annually. If you haven't trimmed the cypress trees for several years, they will have severely overgrown plants. As long as the individual specimens are healthy, the hedge can be shortened by a third next spring. However, you should be careful - older plants in particular should not be cut too deeply, otherwise they may die. If individual conifers have become too tall, they can be cut back twice a year. They are traditionally shortened by a third and then cut by a third a second time in the fall.
You can also thin out the overgrown hedges or reduce the width by cutting them to form. Don't cut too much off, because cypresses don't grow from old wood.
If the cypress trees have brown spots after the end of winter
If individual plants turn brown after the winter, this is a warning sign for the hobby gardener. If the winter months were too cold and permanent frost has set in, then the plants have difficulty absorbing water through their roots. It is particularly problematic for newly created hedges and young plants with fine roots. To avoid the problem next year, you can protect the soil from frost with bark mulch and reduce evaporation in winter. In addition, regular watering is an absolute must, even in the winter months.
If the cypress hedge has several brown spots, appropriate topiary pruning can save the plants. Cut off the discolored areas and dispose of the brown shoots with household waste. The clippings can be fromFungi or other pathogensmay be infested, so it must not be composted.
What should you do with the cypress cuttings?
The clippings from healthy cypress trees are not suitable for composting because they rot very slowly. If you haven't cut the plants too hard, you can simply leave the clippings under the hedge. It will inhibit weed growth.
However, special care must be taken when recycling clippings. Cypress trees are poisonous to people and animals and dangerous to pets and small children. Since the hedges are usually grown on the border of the property, some of the clippings can end up in the neighbor's garden. That's why you should discuss the issue with your neighbors in advance.
