What is the best time to trim my hedge?
Here in Saanich and Victoria, the weather tends to be quite mild compared with other locations in Canada. Books on pruning tend to be very specific about the most appropriate seasons for pruning and for hedge trimming. Some of the advice doesn’t apply in our climate. The best timing is dependent on your goals and the stage of life of your hedge. If you want to stimulate growth to thicken the hedge, late winter or early spring is a good time, especially after hints of new growth begin to appear. If your hedge is well established and perfectly dense, you may get more bang for your buck by trimming in the fall. I have noticed that laurels, especially, hold their profile better if trimmed in August. Some hedges will not mind being cut in hot weather, and others are more delicate. I always advise that hedge trimming should be done lightly and frequently. It costs just a bit more to have your hedge trimmed each year than to let it go several years. That’s because if you wait too long you wil
