Let $p\ge 5$ be a prime and let $P$ be a Sylow $p$-subgroup of a finite symmetric group. To every irreducible character of $P$ we associate a collection of labelled, complete $p$-ary trees. The main results of this article describe Sylow branching coefficients for symmetric groups for all irreducible characters of $P$ in terms of some combinatorial properties of these trees, extending previous work on the linear characters of $P$.