{"id":611967566150,"date":"2025-10-16T16:35:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/uncategorized\/how-to-prune-trees-clip-hedges\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T08:41:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:41:40","slug":"how-to-prune-trees-clip-hedges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ashridgetrees.co.uk\/blogs\/hedging\/how-to-prune-trees-clip-hedges\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Prune Trees VS Clipping Hedges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pruning woody plants is a big part of a gardener’s life, and winter is when a lot of it gets done – especially after windy weather leaves some rough edges to tidy up.<\/p>\n

\"\"\n
Example of rough edges to consider tiding up before Spring.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

When we examine a typical branch, we can see that there are basically three ways one could cut it:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Trim off the end, either fairly indiscriminately (as when trimming a hedge) or to a specific bud (as when pruning fruit trees, roses, etc): a heading <\/strong>cut.<\/li>\n
  2. Similar to above, snip off the end, carefully cutting back to a sideshoot: a bench <\/strong>or reduction<\/strong> cut (older books may call it ‘selective heading’).<\/li>\n
  3. Cut the whole branch off at the base, removing it completely: a thinning <\/strong>cut.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, a hedge is a row of trees (typically) that is clipped \/ trimmed regularly, which means you make indiscriminate heading cuts<\/strong> all over it using shears or a hedge trimmer. This stimulates bushy growth that knits together into a lovely mounded wall of hedge.<\/p>\n

    If you were to make those same heading cuts<\/strong> all over a normal tree, the result would not be good ornamentally speaking – sometimes it “has to be done” with trees next to roads and buildings for safety, inevitably ruining the form of the canopy, creating messy bottle-brush growth at the ends of the stumps. Something like a bad haircut that won’t ever really grow back.<\/p>\n

    This is how large tree branches look after a heading cut: not nice on a mature tree, but on a much smaller scale of twigs, it’s exactly what you want all over the surface of your hedge.<\/p>\n

    \n<\/span>\"A\n
    \n

    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    Although with certain species, such as the London Plane, even this rough treatment can be made to work: the professionally cut and maintained ends become a sort of “pollard point”.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n

    Anyway: when we are pruning trees and large shrubs for ornamental purposes, most of your pruning work will be thinning cuts or bench cuts.<\/p>\n

    Which led me to a little lightbulb moment, or at least a coalescing of other people’s ideas into a neat summary.
    A beech hedge plant is the same as a beech tree, only pruned differently. That difference could be summed up as:<\/p>\n