I have an Arbutus unedo ‘Compacta’ planted in my garden, close to the property line. My neighbors want me to shear the top and sides so that they can see the view beyond it while seated on their sofa. I really don’t want to do this, but I need to provide a convincing argument that shearing is not the best way to prune my Arbutus.
It’s difficult to imagine topping and shearing the compact form of Arbutus unedo which is unlikely to exceed 10 feet. Ideally, it would need no pruning whatsoever. Local pruning expert Cass Turnbull of Plant Amnesty classes Arbutus unedo with other “tree-likes,” shrubs or small trees which should be maintained with a tree-like shape. Below are excerpts from her recommendations on pruning (and there is a brief guide on Five Reasons to Stop Topping as well):
“DON’T: Ornamental trees should never, ever be topped. And shrubs should rarely be sheared (except real topiary and formal hedges). Stripping all of the side branches off of a mature pine or any other tree or shrub, is also a no-no. Stripping is not to be confused with selective thinning, which can also make shrubs and trees look open and Oriental.
III. TREE-LIKES
Best let to get big. Not to be pruned heavy-handedly. Good selective pruning can open them up and make them look less oppressive, can train branches around gutters and off of houses, and can bring more beauty out of your plant. These shrubs are the hardest to do. Never remove more than 1/8 total leaf surface in one year. It stresses them or it can cause a watersprout-rebound effect — ick! Tree-likes have stiffish branches, generally. Examples of tree-likes include rhododendrons, andromeda (pieris), magnolias, deciduous Viburnums, camellias and witch hazel.
Most tree-likes just need to have all of the dead wood taken out.
If you still want to do more:
Take out suckers (straight-up, skinny branches from the base and trunk of the shrub or tree.
Take out any big crossing, rubbing branches and double leaders (two main top branches with a narrow branch-crotch angle) on trees.
Take back or remove any branches hanging on the ground, if only up 1/2”.
Take out the worst of the smaller crossing, rubbing branches — choosing the healthiest and best placed branch to remain.
Prune to shorten or completely remove the worst wrong-way branches that start from the outside of the shrub, and go the wrong way back into the center and out the other side. Sometimes a side branch has a smaller branch that heads too far up into the next “layer”, or goes too far down. You can cut some of these off to add more definition to your shrub’s branches.
If you have two parallel branches rather close together, it may look better to remove one. If you, have three parallel branches you may want to remove the center one. This will make things look nicer.
Before you finish, stand back and observe. If necssary, you may sparingly shorten some branches on tree like shrubs (not trees). Cut back to a side branch.”
Another resource, Peter McHoy’s A Practical Guide to Pruning (Abbeville Press, 1993), says that Arbutus unedo “can be trained with a single trunk, as a multi-stemmed tree, or left unpruned to form a dense shrub.” He does not mention shearing it like a hedge. According to The American Horticultural Society’s Pruning & Training edited by Christopher Brickell (DK Publishing, 1996), you can prune Arbutus unedo in spring, as soon as danger of frost is past (that would be early April in Seattle), but keep pruning to a minimum. Some people choose to remove lower branches to create a taller trunk on younger trees.
Your neighbors may be under the misapprehension that shearing will control the size of the plant. In Cass Turnbull’s Guide to Pruning (Sasquatch Books, 2006), the author says, “Because shearing is nonselective heading, it will stimulate bushy regrowth, creating a twiggy outer shell on sheared plants. This layer of twigs shades out the interior which then becomes leafless and full of dead leaves and deadwood. Meanwhile the outher shell becomes thicker and larger every year because, as it is sheared repeatedly, it must be cut a little farther out to retain its greenery. This dense, twiggy outer shell makes size reduction difficult because cutting back too far exposes that ugly dead zone inside the shrub. […] Therefore, shearing is not a good way to control the size of a shrub. […] Shearing is also a drain on the health of plants.[…] Shearing plants creates the antithesis of a healthy environment, making shrubs more prone to insect attack, deadwood and dieback. It adds a general stress on plants because the rapid, profuse regrowth promoted by repeated heading depletes their energy, and their resulting weakness and tender growth makes them more susceptible to injury from freeze or drought. […] shearing often defeats the purpose of shrubbery, usually by cutting off the flowers, but other characteristics get subverted as well.” If these are not reasons enough, it is not cost-effective to shear, as it must be done repeatedly.”
You may wish to contact Plant Amnesty to obtain a referral for a consulting arborist who will speak on your behalf.