Bidding bushes and shrubs for Christmas lights is where most installers leave money on the table. They either underprice them as throw-in upsells or overcomplicate the math and lose the deal. After running thousands of bush wraps and training over 43,000 installers in our community, I have a system that consistently bids bushes profitably in under 60 seconds per property — and it scales whether you are wrapping three foundation shrubs or a commercial property with 40 plants out front.
This guide walks through exactly how I quote bushes — strand counts, spacing rules, power planning, package pricing, and the pricing confidence problem that keeps installers stuck at $35 per bush when they should be at $55.
Why Bushes Are the Easiest Upsell in Christmas Lighting
Bushes are the highest margin add-on in residential Christmas lighting. The customer is already paying you to be at the house, the power source is already mapped out for the roofline, and the install time per bush is measured in minutes — not hours. If your base bid is the roofline, every bush you wrap stacks pure profit on top with very little incremental cost.
The mistake most installers make is throwing bushes in for free or charging $20 each just to say yes. Bushes wrapped properly look incredible at night, and customers gladly pay $45–$55 each because the visual impact transforms the whole front yard. Charge for the result, not the strand.
Stop Pricing From Your Pocket — The #1 Reason Installers Underbid Bushes
Here is the truth nobody talks about: most installers quote bushes cheap because they are quoting from their own pocket, not the customer's. You don't live in that million-dollar house. You don't drive that $100,000 car. You don't send your kids to that $50,000-a-year school. Your customer does. They are not pinching pennies on $55 per bush — they are deciding whether your front yard makes their house look as good as the neighbor's.
Every time you discount a bush down to $35 because you would not pay $55 for it, you are projecting your own budget onto someone whose financial reality is completely different. That is the single biggest reason crews get stuck at the bottom of the pricing range. The customer expects to pay for premium work. Quote the premium price.
The Bush Pricing Formula I Use on Every Quote
I price bushes by size category, not by linear foot or strand count. This keeps quoting fast and keeps the customer's eyes on the total package — not a spreadsheet. Here is the bush pricing tier I have used for years across thousands of installs:
| Bush Size | Typical Strands (25 ft each) | Per-Bush Price |
|---|---|---|
| Small (under 3 ft) | 1 strand | $35–$45 |
| Medium (3–4 ft) | 1–2 strands | $45–$55 |
| Large (4–6 ft) | 2–3 strands | $55–$65 |
| Extra Large (6 ft+) | 3–4 strands | $65–$95 |
Default to the higher end of each tier. The lower number is only there as a floor — drop to it if a customer pushes back, but never start there.
50-Count vs 70-Count Strands: How Spacing Actually Works
Here is the part most installers get wrong. We carry two strand types, both 25 feet long:
- 50-count LED mini strands — bulbs spaced 6 inches apart on the wire. This is the default for nearly every job.
- 70-count LED mini strands — bulbs spaced 4 inches apart on the wire. Use when you want a denser glow.
The spacing between bulbs on the strand dictates how tight you wrap. Whatever spacing the strand has is the same spacing you wrap up the bush. If you are using 50-count (6-inch) strands, you wrap a loop every 6 inches up the plant. If you are using 70-count (4-inch) strands, you wrap a loop every 4 inches. Otherwise you see vertical dark lines between wraps and the bush looks striped at night.
The reason 6-inch is our default: it looks great on big bushes and trees, and it lets us run the same product across the whole job — rooflines, trees, bushes — without swapping SKUs. Mixing 4-inch and 6-inch on the same property only happens when a specific area needs the tighter look.
The 5-Step Bush Quoting Process
- Walk up to each bush and estimate height and width in feet.
- Apply the size tier from the table above.
- Default to 50-count, 6-inch spacing — only switch to 70-count, 4-inch if the customer wants tighter coverage.
- Total all bushes, then add to the roofline subtotal.
- Round the final package up to the nearest $50 and present one number.
One number on the quote — never itemized strand counts. Itemizing invites the customer to start cutting bushes one at a time to lower the total, which kills your average ticket.
Strands, Bulb Type, and What NOT to Use
For bushes, the workhorse product is LED mini light strands on green wire in 50-count or 70-count, 25 feet long. That is it. Avoid these mistakes I see new installers make constantly:
Do not use net lights. They look cheap, they tear when you stretch them over irregular bush shapes, and they can never be wrapped tight enough to hide the gaps. Net lights are why the "Christmas lights on bushes" look got a bad reputation in the early 2000s. Use mini strings and wrap properly.
C9 bulbs belong on rooflines and around windows and doors — not bushes. C9 spacing is built for 12-inch or 15-inch runs along a fascia, not for wrapping a shrub.
C7 bulbs can work on bushes and they actually look good if a customer specifically wants that bigger-bulb look. We just default to minis because the dense glow is what most homeowners are picturing when they say "wrap my bushes."
Do not use incandescent strands. Power draw on incandescent minis is roughly 10x the LED equivalent. You will trip the customer's GFCI by bush three. LED minis are the only correct choice here.
Power Planning: One Extension Cord for All Your Bushes
This is where most installers overcomplicate things. You do not need to run a separate extension cord to every bush, and you do not need a dedicated outlet. LED mini light strands draw so little power that a typical front yard of bushes pulls less than 2 amps total. That means you can run the entire front off one extension cord daisy-chained from one outlet — no breaker concerns, no power injection nonsense.
Build your own custom extension cords from SPT-1 zip wire and zip plugs sized to the actual distance between bushes. A pre-made 25-foot orange contractor cord between every pair of bushes looks like garbage and costs you 4x what custom SPT-1 cords cost to build. Vampire plug (a slide-on connector that bites through SPT wire jacket to make contact with the conductors) and zip plugs are the only fittings you need.
The Bush Calculator That Closes Quotes Faster
If you want to skip the mental math during a customer walkthrough, use the bush lighting calculator on the site. It takes the size tier and spacing input and spits out strand count and pricing so you can quote on the spot from your phone. I use it on properties with more than 8 bushes — anything smaller I quote from memory using the table above.
Bushes as Part of Your Standard Package
The single best thing you can do for your business is bake bushes into your standard package pricing. My base package starts at 100 feet of roofline, and I quote bushes as a separate line that the customer adds in. The math typically looks like this on a normal residential job:
| Line Item | Pricing | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|
| Roofline (100 ft @ $10/ft) | $10/ft | $1,000 |
| 6 medium bushes wrapped | $55 each | $330 |
| 60" lit wreath | $450 | $450 |
| Total Package | — | $1,780 |
That is a $780 swing on a single quote just by adding bushes and a wreath — and the install adds maybe an hour to a 4-hour roofline job. You will not find a higher dollar-per-minute upsell in this business outside of tree wrapping.
Installation: How Bushes Actually Get Wrapped
Bidding profitably only matters if your installer can deliver a clean wrap in the field. The technique is simple — start at the base, spiral the strand up and over the top, and tuck the female plug at the bottom for the next strand to plug into. Keep the spacing consistent (match the bulb spacing on the strand) and do not skip the back of the bush even if the customer says nobody sees it.
For a deeper walk-through of the install workflow itself, our full bush installation guide covers strand-by-strand technique, attachment points, and how to handle weird shrub shapes like junipers and boxwoods.
Commercial Bush Bidding: Volume Without Killing Margin
Commercial properties with 20+ bushes need a slightly different approach. Labor per bush drops because your installer gets into a rhythm — but I do not drop residential rates 15–20% for commercial. What I do is move toward the lower end of the per-strand pricing, around $30 per strand, but never below that. Going under $30 a strand on commercial means you are running the truck for free and praying the multi-year contract makes up for it. It usually does not.
Set a minimum total — typically $2,000 — so the truck roll and drive time are covered. Default to 50-count, 6-inch spacing on commercial because hospitality properties (hotels, restaurants, office parks) usually want the look from the street rather than up close, and the per-bush savings let me bid more competitively without going broke.
Strands Arrive Pre-Bulbed and Pre-Rolled — Don't Waste Shop Time
Some installers hear "shop prep" and assume they need to bulb every strand by hand. We don't. The mini strands we run come pre-bulbed and pre-rolled from the supplier, ready to grab off the shelf and throw on the truck. Your shop workflow is just inventory and labeling — not assembly. Every minute you spend "prepping" pre-built mini strands is a minute you could spend selling another job. Save the shop assembly time for C9 stringer runs where it actually matters.
Related Guides
- How to Decorate Bushes with Christmas Lights Like a Pro
- How to Bid Christmas Light Jobs: Pricing Breakdown
- Christmas Light Installation Pricing Guide
- Lights Per Foot: Spacing Guide for Installers
- How to Quote Tree Wrapping
- Pro Christmas Light Packages
Frequently Asked Questions
How much should I charge to wrap one bush with Christmas lights?
Charge $45–$55 for a typical 3–4 foot residential bush wrapped with one or two LED mini light strands. Smaller bushes go for $35–$45, and large 6-foot-plus shrubs run $65–$95 each. Never charge less than $35 per bush — it is not worth the truck roll.
What strand count and length do you use on bushes?
We carry 50-count and 70-count LED mini strands, both 25 feet long. The 50-count strand has 6-inch bulb spacing and is our default for almost every job. The 70-count strand has 4-inch spacing and is used when a customer wants a denser glow. Whichever spacing you pick, that is the same distance you wrap up the bush — otherwise you see vertical dark lines.
Can you wrap bushes with C9 or C7 lights instead of mini lights?
C9 bulbs are designed for rooflines, windows, doors, and tree trunks and do not look right on bushes. C7 bulbs can be used on bushes and actually look good when a customer wants the bigger-bulb aesthetic. We default to minis because the dense, even glow is what most homeowners are picturing when they ask for bushes wrapped.
How many bushes can I run off one extension cord?
You can power a typical front yard of bushes off a single 15-amp circuit because the LED draw stays under 2 amps total. Build your own SPT-1 zip wire jumpers between bushes to keep the cord runs clean and the cost low.
Should I include bushes in my base Christmas light package?
No — quote bushes as a separate line item the customer adds on. Bundling them into the base package hides the upsell value and trains customers to expect bushes for free. Keeping bushes as a $45–$55 per-bush add-on gives the customer a clear choice and adds $200–$400 to your average ticket.