Mature Lime avenue - in need of pruning?

[Singlemalt]

We have a number of Lime (Common Lime, I believe) lining our driveway - someone in the 1850's (we think) had the foresight to plant them, and now we are enjoying this rather wonderful avenue. But we feel they could do with tidying up as they are getting very bushy.

 

I would like to get an arborist in to attend to them. My questions are

 

1. should the "suckers" growing from the base of the trees and some way up the trunk, be pruned off?

2. What is the best way to prune them and what time of year.

3. looking at my attached photos, roughly how long would be be reasonable to allow a professional arborist to tidy up the base of one of these trees and to around 8ft?

 

There are quite a few of them.....44 to be exact (and that's just lining the drive, there are almost 60 if I include others around the grounds). Only the 44 along the drive need looking at at the moment.

 

Located in Sutherland, Highlands.

 

Any advice gratefully received!

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by Singlemalt

[Steve Bullman]

Look like Europea which are the worst for throwing out epicormic growth.  That will be constant maintenance i'm afraid.  Quickest way for the base is a hedge trimmer, the rest up the trunks will require secatuers and handsaws.  Make sure you get a professional in, the last thing you want is someone hacking away at it with a chainsaw leaving untold wounds all up the trunks.  Seen that many a time.

[Singlemalt]

2 minutes ago, Steve Bullman said:

Look like Europea which are the worst for throwing out epicormic growth.  That will be constant maintenance im afraid.  Quickest was for the base is a hedge trimmer, the rest up the trunks will require secatuers and handsaws.  Make sure you get a professional is, the last thing you want is someone hacking away at it with a chainsaw leaving untold wounds all up the trunks.  Seen that many a time.

Many thanks for that, very helpful.

 

Sure, I definitely want it done properly without harming the trees.

 

What is the best time of year? I read somewhere winter is a bad time because of risk of frost damage.

[Steve Bullman]

Pruning small epicormic growth like that I would say anytime.  Although if you do it now it you will have fresh growth on there by the winter.  If you wait till the leaves drop at least you're have several months looking neat and tidy

[Stere]

 

In 2 or 3 yrs they will grow back the same length so will be a constant on going thing to keep them tidy if thats what you want.

 

Your could try doing one tree see if you like the look of it after.

 

 

[Mark J]

Clearing the epicormic growth also allows the base of the stem to be inspected for defects.

[Baldbloke]

That’s great info for us too as we have a few similar mature lime trees with the same characteristics. We left one such tree alone for years and it allowed some suckering off the parent tree. We quite liked it as it made an additional feature.
However, I do tidy up the main stem every few years, and it is due another haircut.[emoji3]

[Baldbloke]

[Baldbloke]

Got me in the mood to do mine. First cut with the saw to see the wood from the branches. My hedge trimmer weren’t up for 1” branches

[Baldbloke]

We have a number of Lime (Common Lime, I believe) lining our driveway - someone in the 1850's (we think) had the foresight to plant them, and now we are enjoying this rather wonderful avenue. But we feel they could do with tidying up as they are getting very bushy.
 
I would like to get an arborist in to attend to them. My questions are
 
1. should the "suckers" growing from the base of the trees and some way up the trunk, be pruned off?
2. What is the best way to prune them and what time of year.
3. looking at my attached photos, roughly how long would be be reasonable to allow a professional arborist to tidy up the base of one of these trees and to around 8ft?
 
There are quite a few of them.....44 to be exact (and that's just lining the drive, there are almost 60 if I include others around the grounds). Only the 44 along the drive need looking at at the moment.
 
Located in Sutherland, Highlands.
 
Any advice gratefully received!
 

Since there’s 44 along the driveway (and it’s a real ball ache to do one let alone 44, why not hedge trim the problem into a low hedge between the trees? Future maintenance would then take a morning with a good tractor operator rather than days.

My efforts took me several hours on the first tree and because of all the nooks and crannies in the trunk will never be truly tidy