penance, : wrote:

hi
I have a copper beach tree at the end of my garden the neighbour
whose
garden this borders has asked me to prune it.
Is this a tree that can be pruned back quite hard and survive.

Yes. If it is young, that is easy to do. If it is older, it should
be done by someone skilled. It can be grown as a hedge or topiary
plant.

thanks but its not young, its now about 45ft tall, and have been asked
to
reduce its height by about 60%
I was concerned about its survival chances.

Tell your neighbour that 60% is utterly unreasonable.
It would leave you with a 15ft stump that likely would affect its
survival. It would also take a fair few years for the tree to recover
shape, if at all.
Tell them you are willing to have the tree reduced by up to 15% and
thinned. If they dont like it tell them its there tough luck.



Hmm well its not that unreasonable I have a very long garden the
neighbour has only 35ft and this tree is very close to the boundary
although not overhanging it.
Its vitally important in these cases to try and see the situation from
the other peoples point.
As such I am quite prepared to reduce the height of the tree, the advice
I was seeking was whether a Copper Beech tree could be pruned back hard
and survive.
Of course I will be using a tree surgeon to curry out this work but
wondering if anyone had first hand knowledge with this tree species.