Georgetown Tree Care

Pruning notebook

Read a crown.

Find the lowest limbs in each photograph. How far up the trunk do the first branches begin? These three plates from a 1914 field book show how different the answer can be.

Choose a crown study
A larch with a wide crown and low branches in an open field
Study 01 / 03

Room to spread.

This larch grew in the open. Follow the outline from the top down: its lower limbs had room to reach outward. On a lawn, that spreading shape can be part of what you want to keep.

J. J. Levison, Studies of Trees · Fig. 90
Tall woodland trees with narrow crowns above long trunks
Study 02 / 03

Light from above.

Compare the long, clear trunks with the larch in the first photograph. In close woodland, the crowns occupy a different space. Two trees can have very different natural outlines.

J. J. Levison, Studies of Trees · Fig. 91
Historical photograph of a street tree with its branches severely shortened
Study 03 / 03

When the outline is lost.

The original book uses this street tree as an example of severe pruning. Its shortened limbs end abruptly. If one branch is causing a problem, an arborist can look at that branch in the context of the rest of the crown.

J. J. Levison, Studies of Trees · Fig. 112