The one rule that drives the whole calendar
Do not prune oak trees between February and June. That is oak wilt season in Texas. The beetles that carry the fungus are active, and a fresh cut smells like an open door to them. Live oaks, red oaks, bur oaks, chinquapin oaks: they all wait. This one rule matters more than everything else in this article combined. Read our deep dive on the signs of oak wilt if you want to know what is at stake.
Everything below is built around that rule. Once you respect it, the rest is about stress, heat, and common sense.
December through February: the sweet spot
Winter is prime pruning season in North Texas for one simple reason: the trees are dormant. No leaves on the deciduous trees, so you can see the branch structure clearly. Cuts heal fastest once growth restarts in March. Insect and disease pressure is at its lowest.
This is when to do your real structural pruning: thinning crowded canopies, raising limbs over driveways and walkways, removing crossing or rubbing branches. Pecans, cedar elms, Chinese pistaches, Texas redbuds, and junipers all do great with winter pruning. Late February is also the traditional window for crape myrtles. It is also the right time to cut out mistletoe: winter is when the evergreen clumps stand out in a bare crown. Our mistletoe guide covers how to remove it properly. Just keep the oaks until the deep cold is locked in. December and January are safest for oaks; late February is still fine, but do not let it slide into March. Our oak trimming timing guide walks through the details.
One exception: fruit trees. Peaches and plums are best pruned in mid to late February, right before bud break. Prune too early and a hard freeze can damage the fresh cuts. Prune too late and you are cutting off this year's fruit.
March through June: the oak blackout
For oaks, this is the no-cut zone. For everything else, it is a mixed bag. Light shaping on fast-growing trees is fine, but avoid heavy pruning on anything flowering in spring. You would be cutting off the bloom, and the tree is spending its energy reserves on new growth anyway.
What you can still do in spring: remove deadwood any time, shape crape myrtles before they leaf out, clean up junipers and Ashe junipers before the heat arrives, and deal with anything storm-damaged. What you should not do: top a tree because it looks "too tall." Topping does not make trees safer; it makes them weaker and uglier. And remember that pruning wounds on non-oaks do not need paint or dressing. Trees seal their own cuts. Oak is the exception.
July and August: prune as little as possible
August in Collin County is brutal on everything with roots. A freshly pruned tree has to heal wounds while its leaves are losing water as fast as the roots can pull it up. Add a drought year and you can genuinely hurt a tree with a big summer prune.
So in midsummer, cut only what has to be cut: dead branches, anything hanging over a roof or sidewalk, broken limbs after one of our afternoon storms. This is not the season for canopy reduction or reshaping. It is a good season to notice problems, though. Suckers, dead tips, bark peeling, limbs that leaf out late: write it down and bring it up when the crew comes in winter.
September through November: the quiet window
Fall is underrated for pruning most non-oak trees. The heat backs off, disease pressure drops, and you can see structure again as leaves thin out. This is also the best time to plant new trees in North Texas, so it is a natural pairing: plant the new ones, tidy up the old ones.
Oaks come back into the workable window in July, so fall is fine for them too. Just avoid pruning oaks during the first warm stretch that follows a cold snap, when sap movement wakes the beetles up. If October turns warm again, wait for steady cold. Light pruning on crape myrtles in fall is fine, but save the real shaping for February. And if you are clearing storm damage from one of our fall fronts, read what to do right after a storm damages your tree before you grab the saw.
When the calendar does not matter
Some problems do not get to wait for January. A dead limb over your driveway, a cracked branch over the neighbor's fence, a trunk split by wind: those come down in whatever month they show up. Deadwood removal is safe year-round on every species, oaks included, because the oak wilt fungus cannot enter through a dead branch.
The other case that overrides the calendar is construction. If a foundation crew or a new driveway is going in, get the pruning done before the trucks arrive, not after the roots are compacted. When trees are damaged by a storm, storm cleanup comes first and timing rules go second. If a cut on a live oak has to happen between February and June, the fix is simple: paint the cut immediately, same day, no exceptions.
Not sure where your trees land on this calendar? That is the difference between a trim and real pruning. A crew that knows the difference will tell you which limbs can wait and which ones cannot.
Common Questions
Can I prune my oak tree in April?
You should not. February through June is peak oak wilt beetle season in North Texas, and a fresh cut on a live oak, red oak, or bur oak in April is an open invitation. Wait until July, or schedule the work for winter. If storm damage forces your hand, have every cut painted immediately.
Is it OK to prune crape myrtles in October?
Yes, light shaping is fine in fall, but the standard North Texas routine is late February, before the spring push. The important thing is to never top them. Cut whole limbs back to a branch or the trunk instead of lopping the tops, and the tree will reward you.
A big limb is hanging over my roof right now. Do I have to wait for the right month?
No. Safety beats the calendar every time. Dead, cracked, or storm-damaged limbs come down in whatever month they show up. The timing rules are about healthy wood you choose to cut, not hazards you need to fix.
Do I need to seal or paint pruning cuts?
Only on oaks, and only to block oak wilt. Other trees seal their own wounds and do better without dressing. On oaks pruned between February and June, or any oak cut made out of season, painting the cut right away is standard practice in Texas.