Hedge Trimming in Pompano Beach, FL

Ficus has long been the go-to privacy hedge in South Florida, and an old one can be taller than the house. Two things to know before you trim one. First, check the leaves: ficus whitefly showed up on Ficus benjamina hedges in 2007, and UF/IFAS Extension describes yellowing, heavy leaf drop and, in bad cases, dead plants. A hedge that is thinning from whitefly needs the pest treated, which pruning alone won't fix. Second, weeping fig is in the lowest wind-resistance group in UF/IFAS hurricane studies, so a 15-foot ficus wall next to a house is safer kept lower and narrower than it wants to grow.

Clusia makes a dense screen of thick, rounded leaves. The work is shearing the face and top back to the line you want, then bagging or hauling the clippings. Height is what moves the price here. Cost guides price hedges up to 6 feet tall at one rate and 6 to 12 feet at a higher one, since the taller work means ladders or a lift. Ask that the top be cut a little narrower than the base so light reaches the lower leaves.

An areca screen is a row of clumping palms, not a shrub, and it shouldn't be sheared like one. The job is cutting out dead and yellow fronds and thinning old canes at the base so the clump stays full without crowding. Palms follow their own pruning rules, the green fronds stay, and the City counts cutting live fronds above horizontal as tree abuse; palm tree trimming explains the line. Price this one by the clump or the hour rather than by linear foot.

A hedge that hasn't been touched in years is a different job from a maintenance trim. Cutting it back hard to bare wood takes time and makes a lot of debris; taking it out entirely is priced by length:

• Removal: about $40 to $150 per 5 feet of hedge. Quotes often count each 5-foot run as one shrub.
• Root balls: $12 to $24 each to pull, if you want to replant in the same bed.
• Debris haul: $35 to $100 extra in cost guides.

A ficus that has grown into a tree is a tree under City rules, and hatracking it can bring a tree abuse fine; see tree trimming for the pruning standard.