Them being hollies they should be tolerant. You would want to do it right away. But as you say at the end, they will grow back. So then you will end up with tall and deformed holly trees, with topped trunks and replacement stems above, instead of the natural shape they have now (unless they've already been topped before). Are you planning on re-topping them, over and over, to keep the height down?

No. My hope would be a natural top but I now realize that will not happen.

Look on the bright side; there are much uglier trees to have outgrown their location.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Sat, Jun 1, 13 at 18:47

if you could post a pic.. we might be better able to offer more specific suggestions ...

how far are these 20 year old trees from the foundation???

ken

They are no threat to the foundations. I'll see about posting a photo.