In short
Have it pruned properly. Topping, meaning cutting the main stems straight across to a height, leaves stubs that regrow weakly and rot, and the Arboricultural Association warns that removing large amounts of wood and foliage puts a tree under significant stress. A crown reduction or thinning keeps the tree's shape, takes off less, and Checkatrade puts the average crown reduction at £500 per tree.
This is a job for my Tree pruning service.
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What topping does to a tree
Topping is what you see on a lot of the older gardens around Wisbech and March: a tree cut flat across at fence height or roof height, with a broom of thin shoots growing out of each stub a couple of years later. It looks like a quick fix and it is a cheap one on the day. The problem is what happens next. The Arboricultural Association's pruning guide warns that removing large amounts of wood and foliage reduces the tree's ability to photosynthesise and puts it under significant stress. On the topped trees I see, the new shoots are fast and weakly attached, the cut stubs rot back into the stem, and the tree is at the same height again within a few years with decay now inside it.
What proper pruning does instead
- Crown reduction takes the height and spread down by cutting back to suitable side branches, so the tree ends up smaller but the same shape. Checkatrade's guide (May 2024) gives £200 to £800 per tree with an average of £500.
- Crown thinning removes selected inner and outer branches to let light and wind through without changing the outline. The same guide says a maximum of 30% of the structure is removed.
- Crown lifting takes off the lowest branches for headroom over a lawn, path or drive.
- Deadwooding removes dead, diseased and hazardous branches only.
The Arboricultural Association's guide says the final cut should not exceed a third of the diameter of the branch it comes off, and that the best time for most species is late spring through summer once the leaves have hardened, with exceptions: birch, walnut and maple in summer or mid-winter to avoid bleeding, and cherry and other prunus in summer.
Check before anyone cuts
Some trees are protected. Gov.uk's guidance says a Tree Preservation Order prohibits topping, lopping or cutting down without the council's written consent, and that a tree in a conservation area needs six weeks' notice to the council before work starts even without a TPO. The exceptions are removing dead branches from a living tree, work on a tree that presents an immediate risk of serious harm (with notice as soon as practicable), and fruit trees pruned in line with good horticultural practice. If the tree is in a conservation area or has a preservation order, the council must be told first, so I always ask, and a call to the council's tree officer settles it.
What I do and what I refer on
I prune and shape garden trees: deadwood, crown lifting, thinning and modest reductions on trees I can work safely from the ground or a platform, with the cuttings cleared and taken away. I do not top trees, because I do not want to be the reason your tree is a hazard in ten years. Large reductions on big trees, anything needing climbing or rigging, and felling are a tree surgeon's job. The Arboricultural Association recommends an ARB Approved Contractor for that work, and I am happy to point you to one.
The decision in one line
If the tree is simply too big for the space, a proper reduction now costs more than a topping but you only pay for it once. If it is so big that no reduction will ever make it fit, the honest conversation is about replacing it with something that will.