Pruning a massive Cypress on the Bass Coast

Evan Enbom • November 18, 2018

An elderly lady named Elizabeth recently reached out to us for a quote to remove her massive Monterey cypress in The Gurdies (on the Bass Coast in Victoria). Despite her requesting a full removal, what immediately struck me was her overall fondness for the tree. She waxed lyrical about the trees immense stature and history, even presenting us with an apparent photograph of the young tree taken in 1937 (see below)...

If this was indeed a picture of the same tree, that places its probable age at around 100 years old. Elizabeth's primary concern was some dieback in the canopy and the fire danger that this may cause. We discussed the matter and parted ways while I ruminated on the trees future...

What a beast! (the tree that is, but seriously have a shave mate!) We sent Elizabeth a quote to remove the tree as requested, but also slipped in another quote and recommendation to give it a prune instead. After a few weeks she gave me a call asking to go ahead with the pruning work instead of the removal, huzzuh! Alright, let's get started...

Here's the 'before' photo. As you can see there's quite a bit of dead stuff to be cleared out (especially over the sheds), including a lot of branches that can't be seen in this picture. As you may be aware, there has been an amalgam of diseases going around killing cypress tree over the last few years known as "Cypress Decline". Whether this dieback is a result of that or other environmental stress, we don't know. The removal of possible disease-harbouring deadwood and thinning of the canopy can only help, although in an ideal world we would have recommended a large scale mulching and irrigation setup. In this case it simply wasn't in our clients budget, so we did what we could.

Here's yours truly getting stuck into it (can you find me?) It's only with human scale that you get a sense of how big this tree really is. This picture was probably taken about 75% through the job, having worked our way up the right hand side to the top, and on my way back down the left. Check out the finished article below...

Voila! Ain't she a beauty? Elizabeth was very impressed (probably moreso with our climbing techniques according to her!). Besides, it's nice to save an old tree from the chop for a change - even though a removal could have been equally justifiable. So, will it continue to die back? Probably. Will it live another hundred years? Doubtful. Will it give shade and tranquillity to an elderly lady entering her twilight years? Absolutely.

And just in case you missed it, here's a side by side comparison below...

There's often a diamond in the rough to be unearthed, even in the common cypress so synonymous with this region of Victoria. Get in touch for a free quote today and let's see what we can do to beautify your property!

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