A comprehensive horticultural and arboricultural service

Reitz Tree Care, operating from the historical Ouland Farm, northwest of Plettenberg Bay, has established itself as a comprehensive and wide-ranging service, including specialised tree pruning, landscaping, garden advisory, tree propagation and retail service.

Owner, Charles Reitz, is well known in the Garden Route for his work as an arborist or arboriculturist. He has a National Certificate in Horticulture and has practised in South Africa, the United States and Europe. He is engaged in an intricate science, the insight of which is the reason his services have grown so in demand.

Charles approaches his work like an artist – aesthetics playing a big role in his inspiration, just as horticultural science has in his professional approach. “Many owners of urban properties (often with sea views) are surprised and delighted to find what miracles are possible with knowledge, understanding and patience,” says Charles.

Arboriculture

Arboriculture is the cultivation, management and study of individual trees, shrubs, vines and other perennial woody plants. It is both a practice and a science.

The science of arboriculture studies how these plants grow and respond to cultural practices and to their environment. The practice of arboriculture includes cultural techniques such as selection, planting, training, fertilisation, pest and pathogen control, pruning, shaping, and removal, all falling into the sphere of RTC’s operations.

A person who practices arboriculture can be called an arborist or an arboriculturist. A ‘tree surgeon’ is more typically someone who is trained in the physical maintenance and manipulation of trees and therefore more a part of the arboriculture process rather than an arborist as such. Risk management, legal issues and aesthetic considerations have come to play prominent roles in the practice of arboriculture.