Sheared back to a clean, straight line on a schedule.
Rounded and specimen shrubs hand-shaped so each keeps its form.
Azaleas, hydrangeas and other bloomers cut at the right time so they flower again.
A row of boxwoods sheared back to rounded forms, with the bed re-edged and fresh black mulch underneath. Drag to compare.
A shrub sheared into a ball for years is green outside and bare inside. What happens next depends on the plant.
Time to replant? See landscape installation →
General Pennsylvania timing by plant type. Pick one to see its window.
Boxwood. Shear after the spring flush, with a light touch-up in late summer.
Count and size drive it, plus whether it is routine maintenance or a first cut on something that has not been touched in years. The first visit on a neglected property always costs more than the ones after it.
Trimming is shaping the outside — keeping a hedge to a line. Pruning is selective, cutting specific branches back to a joint to improve the plant's structure or open it up. A sheared shrub looks tidy from outside and goes hollow within; a pruned one keeps growth through the whole plant.
Most formal hedges need two cuts a season here — once in early summer after the first flush, once in late summer. Slower-growing evergreens often hold their shape on one.
Worth confirming on any quote — a trimming price that leaves the clippings on the drive is not the same price as one that does not.
We'll tell you whether they can be shaped back, renovated over a couple of seasons, or whether it's time to replant.
