Any advice on how best to go about this?

==>>>> yes.. post some pix ...

nearly all evergreen plants.. are nudey inside.. there is no sunshine in there.. to support greenery ...

often.. in these circs.. w/o a pic ... it faster.. and easier.. to remove the prior owners mistakes ... rather then spend 3 to 5 years.. trying to renovate such.. all the while.. the neighbors walking by and pointing at your house.. lol ...

if you really want some pertinent replies.. we need pix ...

ken

Here's the one in the front:

And the back...

oh man ... that looks like one gorgeous house.. with a mutant lollipop out front..

crikey man.. this is the entry to your castle.. get rid of that ugly.. old.. poorly cared for thing ...

its not worth the 2 to 4 years.. to perfect it into a new form ...

now.. as to that.. the one out back ... would it interest you to watch said 2 to 4 year process while you sip mimosas on your back deck.. if so... lets go for it ...

or will it sour ever single minute you sit back there.. raising you blood pressure.. instead of calming you ...

point is.. its more of your personality.. rather than what is possible ...

me??? .. if it were out on the 5 acres.. and i could walk by it one a month or so.. and play with it.. the process would be interesting ...

on the edge of my deck .... my eyeballs would be pounding due to high blood pressure for having to look at that thing .. every single time i walked out back ...

what your choice...???? .. make that decision ... and we can work form there ....

ken

Hi Miraje,
I thought that you deserved a serious answer about your Yaupon Hollies.
First of all, they are beautiful trees, and if you are motivated you can make them even more so. If they were mine I would start from the inside out. You can define the structure of the trees by removing dead growth, cris-crossing branches and any branches that do not spread outward. Define dominant branches of the trees and reduce or eliminate the minor ones. Each time you do some pruning, stand back and look at your work. Reduce or eliminate vertical branches. Do not do all the pruning at one time, spread it out over a period of time. You might refer to some bonsai videos. I've linked one here from Bjorn Bjorvala, but there are several others.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bjorvala youtube

Honestly, I've got nothing but time with the mortgage we're sitting under now, so 2-4 years to get these trees looking good again doesn't bother me. Ripping these massive things out does not sound like fun at all, especially since there are sprinkler lines running under them.

Thanks for your reply, sam_md. I was hoping to hear that this could be done a little over time rather than just lopping them back to bare sticks. They'll still probably look like swiss cheese for awhile, but I'll apologize to the neighbors in advance. :)

Boy, I don't know.

They are such well established (and I might add -- well cared for) plants, that any cutting you do will quickly be filled in in one season. Perhaps Sam's approach might work, but what a chore it would be. Do you just want to open them up a bit and make them look more irregular?

Really yaupons want to become small trees to about 20 to 25 feet. Are you really sure you want the 'natural' look of a yaupon? I think they would grow all out of scale -- especially at the front of your home, without significant and regular pruning.

You could try to make them more irregular by clipping individual branches from the inside, but do it carefully, methodically, and look at the plant from all angles when you do.

In the end, you may get discouraged and just want to remove them, and replant with another broad leaved evergreen that might grow more slowly.

I'll bet they had a yard service trim those. I don't think you could reach them even on a ladder?

I'd be tempted to keep them though. I like neatly trimmed yaupons.

I love the look of those trees... never heard of them...

..the one out back I absolutely love the shape and I would want to keep it that way... the trunks remind me of two ballet dancers entwined...or an ice skating pair doing a tricky manoeuvre.... that's how I see it..

..the one at the front.. 3 little legs with knobbly knees...bending under the strain of holding that lot up..

...best of luck with whatever you decide... lovely photos..

Yeah, I think what I'm really trying to do is to give them a more attractive shape in general. I know I'll still have to prune off the top to keep it from getting too tall. I'm not really worried about letting the backyard one get taller. The giant mushroom in the front yard just looks so hideous to me, and constantly shearing it to maintain the smooth appearance is going to be more work than I want to do, particularly since there will be ladders involved. The previous owners did hire a landscaper to do the work for them. In fact, the same guy does all the neighbors' yards, too, so it's like we live in the mushroom kingdom here.

Another benefit of opening up the inside of the tree more is that we'll get more sunlight in the window behind the tree. Right now it blocks it completely.

I was going to ask what was behind the tree. If it's a window, I wouldn't hide it unless you really want a screen there. Typically people prefer to keep the windows unobstructed.

Therefore a much lower plant such as a spreading Camellia 'Bonanza' would be great (for shade) or Indian Hawthorne, pittosporum, maybe a variegated holly such as 'Honey Maid' or a myriad of other interesting BLEs.

Those yaupons would be gone before I finished unpacking boxes, if they were at my new home. Two years is seven hundred and thirty days long days of looking at those things probably several times a day.

Frankly, I doubt that you can ever create something attractive out of specimens that have been treated like this for so long.... and if your intent is to keep them smaller than they will want to grow, you'll be challenged keep them pruned several times a year. They'll end up looking just like they do now.

They are simply the wrong plant for the location.

I'm a skillful pruner, and a long time bonsai practitioner but I still wouldn't want to attempt that job in such an important part of my landscape.

it looks like you have a frank lloyd wright type home.. please dont mess with a renovation out front ...

get a sawzall ... and a tree cutting blade ... and sharpen your shovel.. and just take a Saturday.. to dig it out ...

and once its gone.. we can make some suggestions about how to re-landscape the spot ...

there is no reason.. other than back breaking labor.. lol .. that this should cost much at all ...

maybe you can find a young teen boy in the area.. whole will do it .. if you cant ... and dont worry about trampling whatever else is there... if there is anything of value.. it can be moved out.. in advance ...

and most likely.. the 3 balls behind it.. should go too ...

lets start over.. and do insure.. since you are new to the house.. that there are no buried utilities ... in that area ....

ken

Yeah, I'm with Ken and Rhizo on this one. Formally sheared shrubs/small trees are not necessarily bad things in my worldview, but I don't care for the plants you are showing us. Nor do I think they add to, or blend in with, your home. I'd do the dirty deed and get rid of both. Space in your yard to do something you really like is the premium item here....not someone's dream of long ago.

+oM

Although I'm not a fan of pruned geometric shapes, I'd have to see a wider view of the landscape to see how a "natural" tree would fit in. What I do see is how that front tree (and the way its is pruned) mirrors the shape of the bed as well as other pruned shrubs. Are there more pruned shrubs throughout the landscape?

tj

tsugajunkie, yes, but there is a mix. I can show a few pics of the front. There's actually a huge formally trimmed holly tree right next to the mushroom one that I haven't figured out what to do with yet. I'm not even sure if I can reach the top of it with a ladder.

Then off to the right of the mushroom there is a row of white crape myrtles. There's also a single white crape myrtle off the left edge of the first pic in the other corner of the yard with some hostas and barberry bushes planted around it. I don't have a pic of that one.

This post was edited by miraje on Tue, Jan 6, 15 at 21:49

mirage,
Check out the Sasanqua camellia.
They espalier the camellia onto walls, it takes sun, would tolerate your climate very nicely, I would definately buy one for where your chimney is, it would bloom fall into winter, and look wonderful right in the front of your house, without being too big.
A local nursery would be able to order one for you, perhaps even come out and plant it.
SO, they would require the big oblong holly to be removed, and the camellia to be placed growing on that chimney the oblong holly is covering.
As to the holly that is a big ball, I wouldn't want that, but if you like it, it's a matter of personal taste.
There are beautiful conifers for that spot that wouldn't cover as much of your home as the ball holly does.
Something that doesn't get real big, but is interesting.
You have a beautiful home, congrats and enjoy!

Im going on a limb here. I LIKE the sheared hollies, but I think the problem is the shapes got too big. I think the mushroom one, next to the crape myrtles, would look good if it were a smaller mushroom. The one by the chimney, I think would look better if shaped were converted to a cylinder rather than the cone shape it has now. The crape myrtles are free form and I like the combination of free form plants with the formally pruned hollies.

The garden has been well maintained, and to me, that means somebody has been trimming and pruning religiously--lots of work. If you want to lighten the work load, I would take them out. But if it is a matter of thinking that the pruned trees are overbearing, well, they are, but I think pruning into small shapes would fix it.

I like the façade of your house, just needs a little tweaking, IMO.

Your mushroom would look better if it was a Japanese Maple. As for the chimney, I'm not a fan of tall and narrow up against the house, but some facades do call for them.

There are a myriad of conifers out there to fit the bill, this was one I saw in a garden in Michigan...

tj

I think that type of holly tends to form a cone-shape, but I agree that it needs to be kept narrower than it is. I also agree that both are out of scale for where they are and are just too big. I think that's probably what has been really bothering me about them but I couldn't put my finger on it.

We haven't been in this house a full year yet, so I think what I may do is take some time this first year and hack away at them with some pruning shears to see what, if anything, I can do about them. If it turns out to be a huge pain in the neck, then we'll try to remove them. Thank you for all the suggestions!

Mir, one final thought; I commend you for your go-slow idea. Too often, people are in a hurry to change things, often before they even really know what they've got. You're avoiding that mistake.

I've done a ton and a half of pruning in my time, and while it's not something I would relish, many, many target pruning cuts could be made to reduce the very size of these plants. By target, I simply mean always cutting back to a lateral. It would take many cuts, obviously, but you might get where you're trying to go, thereby avoiding the need to start over. Basically, you would not especially be changing the shape or form of these plants, just the overall size.

+oM

Columnar shape.

Hi, curious on what u ended up doing? I love a good yaupon tree, in its natural form, for the most part. I have a small one that has taken on the wonkyiess shape which is how I stumbled across ur dilemma.

Thanks for the update.

tj

That looks so much better...nice job!

Miraje, thanks so much for following up and getting back with us, that's very rare on this forum. What a great job on your yaupon holly, tremendous improvement.

I love the new look for your holly! This is a great thread, especially with your update. I'm so inspired by your choice because we are dealing with a somewhat similar situation.

Moved to a house w/a very formal -- and couple decades old -- hedge of sweet myrtle. It was about 3' high and I'm not into the sheared formal hedge look so we started to let it grow. Those myrtles are probably the kind that want to be 15+ feet tall, so now we are slowly re-shaping it from hedge to limbed up trees. I'm imagining it could look really cool, especially as the hidden trunks are twisted and interesting, but right now it's an eyesore and so full of dead limbs (and, so I've found inside as we work on it, trash and dead small critters). As we trim and shape the "dead" branches left behind start to grow new leaves and I believe a couple amazing small trees will emerge at the end of this process.

Thanks for the comments! Yeah, melle_sacto, that's what I had to do with this one too. I spent a quite of bit of time crawling up inside the tree and breaking off all the dense, dead branches and twigs left over from years of shearing. I also took out about 20-30% of the large limbs to open up the canopy and get some light into it. It looked a little rough at first but responded well to the pruning.