Tree & Shrub Wrap — LED Mini-Strand Install
Handis tree and shrub wrap installs LED mini-strand holiday lighting on yard trees and shrubs — trunk-and-branch wraps on trees, full canopy threading on shrubs and hedges, green wire on shrubs so the daytime view stays clean, brown on tree trunks, stake-anchored at the base, paired with a timer or smart plug — from $400 per single tree or shrub row. Self-wrapping a maple takes about three hours, a sore back, and usually ends with two strands that do not light. Self-wrapping six front-yard shrubs takes a full Saturday and visible orange cord in every daytime photo until February. We bring the right wire color, the right bulb count, and the install time off your weekend.
Service
What Does Tree & Shrub Wrap Include?
Tree and shrub wrap is the residential holiday lighting service that puts LED mini-strands on yard trees and shrubs — trunk-and-branch wraps on trees (warm white traced up the trunk and out the major branches), full canopy threading on shrubs and hedges (strands woven through the upper third so the bulbs sit on the leaf surface), accent lighting on walkway plantings, and stake-anchored runs at the base. Handis covers four real install patterns from $400. Each pattern picks a wire color (green for shrubs, brown for tree trunks), a bulb spacing, and a circuit plan, then runs it.
Trunk Wrap (Single Tree)
Warm white LED mini-strand spiraled up the trunk from base to first major branch, brown wire so the daytime view shows the bark rather than orange cord. Bulb spacing tightens at the base (denser look near eye level) and opens up through the canopy. For dogwoods, smaller maples, and ornamental trees up to about 15 feet, a single trunk wrap is the standard.
Trunk-and-Branch Wrap (Larger Tree)
Trunk wrap plus the major lower branches — warm white traced out to roughly two-thirds of the branch length, taped at the branch tip to keep the strand from bouncing in wind. For mature maples, cedars, and front-yard specimen trees, the trunk-and-branch wrap is what produces the postcard front-yard look. Takes longer and runs more strand than a trunk wrap alone.
Full Canopy Shrub Wrap
LED mini-strands threaded through the upper third of the shrub canopy — strands sit on the leaf surface, bulbs face outward, green wire so the daytime view is just shrub. For boxwood, azalea, rhododendron, and similar dense-canopy shrubs. Stake-anchored at the base of the row to keep the run from dragging across the lawn.
Walkway Accent Lighting
LED stake lights or low-profile mini-strand runs along walkway edges and garden beds — accent rather than full coverage, set at a height that lights the path without glaring up at the camera angle. Lower-wattage than full canopy work, so the circuit budget for the walkway adds onto the front rooflinerun rather than needing its own.
How a Tree & Shrub Wrap Install Works
Five steps every Handis tree and shrub wrap install runs through — site walk and canopy measurement, wire color and bulb count picked for the daytime view, install with strand-tension control, stake-anchoring at the base, and timer pairing with a full-load operations test.
Site Walk and Canopy Measurement
Tech walks the trees and shrubs being wrapped, measures trunk circumference and branch spread on each tree, counts shrubs by canopy size, and notes the closest GFCI outlet. Existing strands you want reused get inspected for cracked sockets, frayed insulation, and water-intruded plugs.
Wire Color and Bulb Count Picked for the Daytime View
Green wire on shrubs so the daytime view is just shrub, brown wire on tree trunks so the daytime view is just bark. Bulb spacing tightens at the trunk base for a denser look near eye level, opens up through the canopy. Multi-color versus warm white locked in before any strand opens.
Install with Strand-Tension Control
Trunk wraps spiraled up the trunk under light tension — tight enough to stay put through wind, loose enough that growth-ring expansion in spring does not bite into the bark. Shrub canopy threading sets strands on the upper leaf surface so bulbs face outward without bird-cage looping inside the bush.
Stake-Anchoring at the Base
Strand drops from the wrap base to the ground get tied off with a stake anchor at the soil line — keeps the run from dragging across the lawn, keeps the cord run organized through the season, makes takedown a single pull instead of a treasure hunt. Stake count matches the run count.
Timer Pairing and Full-Load Operations Test
Timer set to dusk-to-midnight or a custom schedule, smart plug paired with Alexa, Google, or HomeKit before we leave. Every circuit tested under full load for at least five minutes — verifies no GFCI trip, no overheating connectors, no dim or flickering sections. Customer walk-through with the controller schedule.
Tree & Shrub Wrap Pricing
Final pricing depends on tree size, branch spread, shrub canopy density, total strand count, and whether existing strands are reused. Lights supplied by Handis are UL 588 commercial-grade LED. Request a free estimate for an accurate quote.
Tree count, shrub count, and the look — we will quote the wrap.
Why Handis for Tree & Shrub Wrap
Tree and shrub wrap looks easy from the curb — strand the trunk, thread the shrub, plug it in. The DIY reality is closer to a full Saturday spent untangling, then realizing the strand you bought was rated for indoor use, the wire color is orange against bare bark, the shrub strand drags on the lawn because nothing anchored it, the timer never paired, and two strands gave up by the third week of December. After a few hundred wraps across Seattle yards, every shortcut has a known failure. We bring the wire color that disappears in daytime, the stake count that holds through January, and the takedown plan that means next year does not start from a bag of knots.
Right wire color for the daytime view
Green wire on shrubs so the daytime view is just shrub. Brown wire on tree trunks so the daytime view is just bark. Orange wire only on installs where the strand is buried out of sight at the base. Most DIY wraps default to orange because that is what the store stocked — the result is visible cord in every daytime photo through January.
Strand tension that does not bite the bark
Trunk wraps spiraled under light tension — tight enough to stay put through wind, loose enough that spring growth-ring expansion does not bite into the bark. Over-tight wrap rings a tree the same way a wire fence does. We have seen the damage and we install past it.
Stake-anchored runs at the base
Strand drops from the wrap base to the ground get tied off with a stake anchor at the soil line. Keeps the run from dragging across the lawn, keeps the cord run organized through the season, makes takedown a single pull instead of a treasure hunt under the dripline. Stake count matches the run count.
Canopy threading that bulbs face outward
Shrub canopy strands threaded across the upper third of the canopy with bulbs facing outward — not bird-caged inside the bush where the leaves block half the light. Threading takes 20 minutes longer than wrap-around and looks twice as good.
Commercial-grade UL 588 strands by default
Heavier-gauge wire, better socket seating, longer manufacturer warranty than the budget residential strands sold at big-box warehouse stores. If you want to reuse existing strands we will tell you honestly on the walk whether they will last the season.
30-day workmanship guarantee
If a stake leans, a strand pulls loose from the trunk wrap, a timer fails to fire because of how we paired it, or the GFCI trips because we miscalculated the load within 30 days of install, we come back and fix it at no extra charge.
Estimate
Tell us the yard — how many trees you want wrapped (and roughly how tall, since trunk-and-branch on a mature maple runs longer than a trunk wrap on a dogwood), how many shrubs or shrub rows, whether you want a walkway accent run, and warm white versus multi-color. We send a clear estimate.
Customer Reviews
Tree and shrub wrap reviews from real Handis customers.
Six boxwood shrubs along the front walk plus a single trunk wrap on the dogwood. We used to do this ourselves every year with the rope lights from the warehouse store and they looked terrible by mid-December. The tech used green wire on the shrubs, brown on the dogwood trunk. Daytime view actually looks like landscaping. Three windstorms in and nothing has moved.
Two front-yard maples with full trunk-and-branch wraps. Tech spent the first ten minutes measuring the trunks and branch spread, then ordered the strand count off that. About four hours total for both trees. Worth every dollar to not get on a ladder in November rain wrapping branches one at a time.
Full front yard — two cedars, four boxwoods, a walkway accent run. The tech coordinated the GFCI circuit plan across all of it so a single outlet does not get overloaded, paired the smart plug to my phone. Programmed dusk-to-eleven. Worked perfectly through January.
My existing tree strands from two years ago — three of the four were salvageable. Tech tested each strand, identified the dead one, replaced just that one from the truck, reinstalled the rest. Did not push me to replace the whole set when most of them were fine.
Front-yard specimen Japanese maple. The tech said most companies would have done a quick trunk wrap and called it done, but on a Japanese maple the silhouette is in the branches, so he wrapped trunk plus the lower branches. About six hours total. The tree absolutely glows at night.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about tree and shrub wrap installs in Seattle.