The short answer: small formal hedges need a trim every 4 to 6 weeks through the growing season and every 6 to 8 weeks over the cooler months, while large screening trees may only need one good cut a year. With Perth's growing season about to take off, now is the time to get your hedge in shape.
Key Takeaways
For small, neat hedges such as correa, escallonia and Photinia 'Red Robin', ABC Gardening Australia magazine recommends a trim every 4 to 6 weeks through the growing season and every 6 to 8 weeks in the cooler months. Larger hedging trees like weeping lilly pilly and sweet viburnum can get by on one cut a year. The principle is simple: little and often keeps a hedge dense and healthy, while a single heavy cut leaves it bare and stressed.
Across Australia, late spring and autumn are the ideal trimming windows. Perth hedges do most of their growing through the warm months, so a shaping cut in September or October sets the structure before the hedge really gets moving. Box hedges are best trimmed once spring growth hardens, ideally before November. Avoid two conditions entirely: very hot days, which scorch fresh cuts and new foliage, and humid, wet spells, which stop cuts healing and let fungal spores in. And check for nesting birds before you start cutting in spring.
A formal hedge only looks formal because it's cut frequently. An informal screen of westringia or other loose-growing natives just needs an occasional trim to hold its size. Technique matters as much as timing: tip-prune a few centimetres rather than cutting into old wood, and keep the base slightly wider than the top so the lower growth still gets light. Choosing plants for a new hedge? Our hedging plants guide for Perth gardens covers the common local options.
Price comes down to the height and length of the hedge, access, whether it's a light shape-up or a staged height reduction, and how much green waste needs carting away. Any figure quoted sight unseen is an estimate only; your exact price comes from a free written quote once our team has seen the hedge in person.
Our team handles tree and hedge maintenance across Perth, from regular shaping to staged reductions, clean-up included. Contact Lumberjacks WA for a free written quote once we've seen the hedge in person.
