I recently purchased a home with a neglected landscape. Most of the shrubs are overgrown. Some are blocking windows and growing over sidewalks. I have received a variety of advice. I can’t afford to remove everything and start over, although I can afford to replace some shrubs. I want to do some drastic pruning but was told this is not a good time to prune. What do you recommend?
Early summer is actually a good time to prune most shrubs. There is still time for regrowth after pruning. By drastic pruning I assume you mean shortening plants by 25 percent or more. Normally I do not recommend removing more than about one-third of a shrub’s foliage at one time. However, there are situations where more drastic pruning is appropriate.
Needle evergreen shrubs like juniper and mugho pine should be pruned so that branches always have some green tissue below the pruning cut. New growth will not grow from brown tissue. However, new growth from adjacent green tissue may grow and cover a small brown area. Since they cannot be pruned as drastically, the needle evergreens are probably the highest priority on the replacement list.
Most broad leaf shrubs will develop new growth when pruned back to where there is no leaf growth, unless branches are completely dead. They can be shortened to half or less of their present size. Some deciduous shrubs can be pruned back within a few inches of the ground and will respond by growing a new compact shrub. It may take more than one growing season to develop. If you kill a few plants with this total pruning, you can replace them.
