Pruning Shrubs Correctly

Q. Attached you will see my 25-year-old bottle brush bush. As you can see, it needs some attention. Can I shape it a bit by trimming it back without harming it? The only trimming I have done is clipping off brown ends each spring (none this year) caused by winter cold. It displays beautiful color for several weeks when the weather warms up.

25 year old Bottle brush shrub

A. Yes but be careful and don’t let the landscape maintenance clods ruin the plant by shearing it with a hedge shears. You may want to consider separation between branches or removing offending branches altogether. It requires either cutting the plant to the ground OR selectively removing some of the older stems. Whether it produces suckers or not will tell you which way to prune it. Either way requires deep pruning cuts, not using a hedge shears.  

         Never use a hedge shears unless you want to replace the shrub in a few years. Hedge shears are for pruning a hedge. That's why the tool used is called a "hedge shears"! If it flowers in the spring, then prune it immediately after it finishes flowering so it has time to grow and produce wood for new flowers.

Formal hedges require quite a bit of work and time. Because they are formal, attention needs to be spent on them once a month. Anything growing "out of place" is cut back with a hedges shears. https://www.hedgesonline.co.uk/formal-hedging

An informal hedge accomplishes the same thing but with far less work. https://laidbackgardener.blog/2016/06/29/a-hedge-for-laidback-gardeners/

            In your case, use a hand pruners and snip three or four branches from each side of the plant, deep inside it, and select where to open it up. Hide your pruning cuts at least 12 to 18 inches inside your shrub. Reach deep inside your shrub. There are several places to prune. Move your hand to each crotch. Ask yourself, "If I were to remove that stem, how would it look?"

           Because it’s so dense on all sides, “cut at a crotch” and remove an entire offending branch or stem. Concentrate on removing stems or branches that are growing down or up. From each section of the shrub remove a stem so the remaining branches are more open and can “breathe”. Remove no more than about ¼ of the branches every three years or so. It will not need more than that.

Pruning with a hedge shears may look okay when the shrub is young, but as it gets older the shrubs older wood needs to be removed. This requires a few well-placed cuts deep inside the shrub.

            When you are finished pruning, the shrub it should look like it was never pruned. That’s the mark of a good pruning job. Who wants to look at an ugly shrub until it grows back? Also spring is the time to apply an iron fertilizer/chelate to the soil to cure the yellowing that occurs on this plant.