We live in Houston but there's no houston.gardening group, so I hope you welcome
out of towners.

Forgive me, but neither my wife nor I are into gardening. We do the minimum we
can that keeps the shrubs and lawn from looking awful.

We have a lot of 20 year old wax leaf ligustrums that had gotten too large and
also looked sad as a result of some intractable leaf malady, so last year we cut
them back to the bone expecting them to die and we'd then dig them up. Instead
they came back and look much better - in fact about as good as ligustrums look.
Now my reason for posting . . .

Our experience was so rewarding we have some pittosporum, Japanese holly,
boxwood and camilla that we'd like to cut back a lot too. In this case we might
cut them back by half, but not back to stumps like we did the ligustrums.

Can we safely cut these plants back so radically?

jim

On Sat, 04 Jan 2003 22:54:53 GMT, jim evans
wrote:


Now my reason for posting . . .

Our experience was so rewarding we have some pittosporum, Japanese holly,
boxwood and camilla that we'd like to cut back a lot too. In this case we might
cut them back by half, but not back to stumps like we did the ligustrums.

Can we safely cut these plants back so radically?

jim
It's likely that no bush will be as able to bounce back as well as
ligustrum, but most can tolerate teh severe pruning you describe. I'm
more familiar with some of the plants mentioned than others, so come
back for others' answres, but here are my guesses:
Boxwood and pittosporum can take almost anything you do to them. The
holly I'm not familiar with, but it can also take a good chopping, I
imagine. I'm used to treating camellias with kid gloves, but in
Austin our soil is too alkaline for them to be really happy, so they
may be pretty tough in Houston. Someone else will have a better
answer on this one, for sure.

Rules of thumb:
prune branches back to just beyond a bud or shoot that points in a
favorable direction, not to a random stub somewhere.
Do this severe work during dormancy (e.g., now) so they will not lose
as much energy in the growing tips. Later, more gentler pruning may
be done in the growing season.
Make sure they have been watered recently when you attack, so they
won't be under stress before you start (not a big problem in Houston,
I know).

good luck
keith
For more info about the International Society of Arboriculture, please visit http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/.
For consumer info about tree care, visit http://www2.champaign.isa-arbor.com/.../consumer.html

Jim, this Sunday, Jan 12, there will be a free seminar at the Houston
Arboretum and Nature Center, 4501 Woodaway.
http://www.neosoft.com/~arbor/nature/nature.html. The topic is "Proper
Pruning Techniques of Trees and Shrubs" and the speaker is T.J. Marks,
City of Houston Forester. 2-4 p.m. (rarely do they run a full hours,
more like 1 1/2 hours). This is part of the Urban Nature Series that the
arboretum puts on almost every Sunday. I speak there about 5-6 times a
year on native landscaping. These seminars are fun.

J. Kolenovsky

http://www.celestialhabitats.com

http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden



jim evans wrote:
=

We live in Houston but there's no houston.gardening group, so I hope yo=
u welcome
out of towners.
=

Forgive me, but neither my wife nor I are into gardening. We do the mi=
nimum we
can that keeps the shrubs and lawn from looking awful.
=

We have a lot of 20 year old wax leaf ligustrums that had gotten too la=
rge and
also looked sad as a result of some intractable leaf malady, so last ye=
ar we cut
them back to the bone expecting them to die and we'd then dig them up. =
Instead
they came back and look much better - in fact about as good as ligustru=
ms look.
Now my reason for posting . . .
=

Our experience was so rewarding we have some pittosporum, Japanese holl=
y,
boxwood and camilla that we'd like to cut back a lot too. In this case=
we might
cut them back by half, but not back to stumps like we did the ligustrum=
s.
=

Can we safely cut these plants back so radically?
=

jim

-- =

J Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/reference.html