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| FYI 56k beware
Hey All- I recently purchased a house that has two corner shrubs/trees that have become unmanageable. Last year, I tried to get the tops under control with a pole pruner, but have a really difficult time reaching. Both are nearly two stories tall. The good news is that I think one is a holly, and one is a taxus, both to my understanding take a hard prune quite well. I'm attaching several pictures in hopes that someone can help me confirm that this is what they are and that I am correct that they can be hacked back pretty well without doing irreparable damage to the plants. As to the yew, I think I'd like to cut it back almost to the main stump, leaving maybe 5 or six pieces of old wood about a foot or so long. This would leave nothing but old wood, terminating about 5.5 feet off the ground (main stump rises to about 4 to 4.5 My hope is that this could become a much more compact tree, and in fairly short order. The holly I am less sure about. At the moment, it actually has a fairly nice weep to it, but again, its out of control. Would I be able to cut it back to the main stump plus several branches a la the yew? If so, I was thinking about cutting it at about 6 ft, as this is where it begins to branch off the main trunk. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Thu, Mar 17, 11 at 15:24
| hmmm ... no pic of the yew overall ... if its as close to the house as the holly ... it is/was improperly planted too close to the house ... it had value as a cute babe ... now it is a geriatric monster.. and most likely should go ... and i will hold that opinion .. with or w/o a pic ... cut it to 4 feet.. and then start digging and get rid of it ... using the height to start wiggling it out as you continue to dig and cut roots .. [make sure you know where all the buried utilities are at a new house] i learned this lesson with my first house.. keeping the history of the house in mind.. i tried to restore and save every plant i could.. 5 years later.. i achieved nirvana .. when i removed the last nightmare problem that SOB left me.. lol ... think of it more along the lines of an opportunity to make your mark on your new landscape.. rather than the loss of a nightmare ... can you trim a yew that way.. sure.. why not.. its yours.. will you spend the next 5 or 10 years hoping it will turn into a reasonable looking plant.. yeah.. probably ... all i ask is ... do you want to look at a mutant for that period of time... i have no experience working with holly .. but frankly .... i would put it in the same class of project.. and chuck it ... your landscape is what YOU make it.. and dealing with the prior owners problems.. makes it about him.. rather than your dream of what your new garden is all about ... good luck ken |
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| Would look better cut down lower and having grown back from that point than where you want to cut now. Fewer cuts would also be required. Both will be able to grow back from stumps. If it were mine, I would keep the existing size and shape of the holly. What about pruning it into more of a tree shape, that you can see out through, instead of whacking it down? |
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- Posted by superkaz661 (My Page) on Sat, Mar 19, 11 at 12:46
| I get both points you guys are making. The reason I was thinking of cutting back hard is to both keep the existing character of the plants at the house (as well as with the yew--thats the northeast corner--not sure what else could ast as a tall anchor there) and I thought they would get back to somewhat decent size fairly quickly as they should have well developed roots. I also thought that by leaving some branches for the yew and holly that they would be encouraged to come back a bit fuller faster, instead of putting out new wherever it wanted. But again, I have no experience with either. |
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- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Sun, Mar 20, 11 at 11:01
| hey give your plan a go ... worse case scenario ... you remove it in fall or next year.. there is never really any hurry with shrubs ... defining FAST in its recovery will be the key ... sometimes you can wait.. for happiness... and other times ... you just get to the point that you dont like the result ... and then the hard decision will come from my experience.. the hard cut back will be really ugly for a couple years ... and usually.. i cant stand the wait ... it will be all up to your tolerance .... just dont expect miracles ... good luck ken |
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