hey

looks like a lot of my plants.. after a hard z5 winter ...

trim them all down.. the brown stuff.. down to the first good looking bud ... cut at an angle ...

is it a recent planting... last year or fall???

why do they look like they have been sheared into balls??? .. making me think it was a shippers trim ...

they are not properly pruned for what they are ....

anyway.. if your interest is peaked.. more facts please ...

ken

The buds on the bare twigs look plump and alive to me. If you snap one twig off and it is green inside it is alive. But you could still trim them off if you want a more ball shaped shrub. Otherwise I would leave them a bit longer and see how it looks later in the year. Personally, I am a bit of an anti pruner for the sake of pruing and prefer a more natural looking plant.

yes flora ... good catch ....

i would not do any trimming until late spring.. when i knew whether or not the buds on the brown sticks were viable or not ....

i never had much luck with black mulch or non-native soil .... it retains too much heat and gets extremely hot in mid afternoon ... it might be part of the problem of you having two differing types of plants that are having problems.. [that other post]

ken

Hi Ken and flora, thank you for your help on this. I will wait until it warms up a bit and then I snip off the dead ends. The mulch I have been using is decomposed bark mulch. How would you recommend the shape for me to prune it? Should it not be shaped round? Thank you.

That's entirely up to you. There's no 'should' about it. Personally I don't want a garden full of green dumplings but some people do. I prefer shrubs to express their personalities not all look the same in slightly varying shades of green. Also, although it doesn't apply to your Euonymous, you will frequently lose blossom if you prune into a blob.

The only shrub I clip into balls or cones is box which forms part of the garden's structure. But I live in a 300 year old town house with a garden not much bigger than the kitchen so I need a bit of formality.

link to many versions of shape ...

frankly.. except for removal of dead stuff ... if any ... i would not prune them at all.. especially no shearing ..

and then in a few years.. when you need to beat them back with a stick ... google RENOVATION PRUNING ... and prune them properly ...

its not that they cant be sheared.. its just that i dont work that hard.. 2 or 3 times a year in my garden ... i have other things to do ... my plants are not sheep.. bah ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: i dont get the barbie.. but whatever

It doesn't get too hot in the Fraser Valley, British Columbia Ken, even with black aged bark as a mulch. The limiting factor in growing plants there is the cold air that drains occasionally down the valley out of the interior. We sometimes even feel the effects of it here in the Seattle area. The damage shown is due to a cold spell we had in November before things had a chance to properly harden off. The plant will be fine even though the tips are dead.
Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: My garden