I recently had my moms bushes trimmed and the guy really took a lot off I thought. Me not knowing anything about pruning am thinking they will never grow back as does my mom. Can anyone share some insight? Will water bring them back and if so how long would it take or or they dead? Thank you in advance.
Will these ever grow back?
- Thread starter jackhandsome
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I don't know what they are, but they look like they will be fine to me. Watering is probably a good idea where they are surrounded by paving, but you still have plenty of green leaves, if they were going to die those would turn brown. Give it a month or so and see if you are getting new shoots starting.
Welcome to the forum.
Welcome to the forum.
Yes, but it will be a while. In order to get the bottoms to completely fill out, the top needs to not shade the bottom. Some of them look wider on top than at the bottom, so trimming them so that the top is more narrow than the bottom will fix this.
Thank you for your replies.
Its going to be OK! All right. So I agree with the others!
But I can help you with a bit more. First, what kind of climate are you? Are you high humidity or low humidity? (This will be a big factor in how to treat this!)
What you can do; especially if you are low humidity is rig up a shade cloth device among that whole exposed area showing the under guts of the plants. And you WANT to do that or wood chips, or both because that whole exposed area the soil will HEAT UP; especially since its by concrete. This won't kill the bushes I think but it will slow their recovery and could even stagnate them.
So up the number of times per day you water them temporarily if you can. You don't need more water but just divide it up and get it on there fast with a COVERING to help keep the soil cool while it recovers.
Another issue is that when you prune trees, bushes, shrubs, etc, you CAN stress the plant out a lot if you take more than 20-30%. This is why for orchard trees, they say don't prune too much, as it can stress the plant out enough that they might not produce fruit that year. And yes these aren't orchard trees but the same thing applies; that the plant can get stressed out more if too much is taken. But the steps above should still let you recover. I would do a bit of shade rigged up though. But don't let the shade be over the green parts; where the plant is collecting energy; just have it over the exposed stems and wood guts for a few weeks.
Feel free to follow up with us or post additional questions.
Also; putting down wood chips around that would be a good idea to keep the soil cool even if that hadn't been trimmed/savaged, etc. But that too can be affected by what kind of bugs, insect issues your area has.
But I can help you with a bit more. First, what kind of climate are you? Are you high humidity or low humidity? (This will be a big factor in how to treat this!)
What you can do; especially if you are low humidity is rig up a shade cloth device among that whole exposed area showing the under guts of the plants. And you WANT to do that or wood chips, or both because that whole exposed area the soil will HEAT UP; especially since its by concrete. This won't kill the bushes I think but it will slow their recovery and could even stagnate them.
So up the number of times per day you water them temporarily if you can. You don't need more water but just divide it up and get it on there fast with a COVERING to help keep the soil cool while it recovers.
Another issue is that when you prune trees, bushes, shrubs, etc, you CAN stress the plant out a lot if you take more than 20-30%. This is why for orchard trees, they say don't prune too much, as it can stress the plant out enough that they might not produce fruit that year. And yes these aren't orchard trees but the same thing applies; that the plant can get stressed out more if too much is taken. But the steps above should still let you recover. I would do a bit of shade rigged up though. But don't let the shade be over the green parts; where the plant is collecting energy; just have it over the exposed stems and wood guts for a few weeks.
Feel free to follow up with us or post additional questions.
Also; putting down wood chips around that would be a good idea to keep the soil cool even if that hadn't been trimmed/savaged, etc. But that too can be affected by what kind of bugs, insect issues your area has.
They look like euonymus. I cut mine back all the time. They leaf back out in no time. I don't think they need any special care except for more pruning. You can shear them with a hedge trimmer and you can take out some of the inside branches so more light gets to the lower leaves. You prunning guy didn't do a very good job shaping them. It looks like he just hacked them back. Some of those longer bare sticks need to be cut back more or your new growth will make them wider than you want. When new shoots sprout you should cut them back before they get too long. It will make them bushier.
About every four or five years I have to cut back my bushes here quite a bit. it takes a year or two for them to recover and look right again but I've cut them back to almost nothing before and they come right back. Mine are Yew and Forsythia bushes. Last year I cut the one forsythia bush back from about 6ft tall and 6ft wide down to a 2x2ft bunch of sticks. That was in Oct. 23. Now its nearly back to where it was again but the new growth is softer branches that can be trimmed back easily without having to butcher the thing again this year.
My yews are over 70 years old, normal pruning every year just takes off the new growth but they gain a bit every season till they get too big. Last year I did the most drastic cut back so far, I cut them back by nearly half their size, with two of them being nearly nothing but a bunch of sticks. This year so far they're nearly as big as they were before the cutting. The one bush was cut back about 3ft on one side because it had nearly closed off a walkway. That side will take another year o fill out again but it will. The rest of the bush, and most of that cut down side have already filled back in.
I had one on the end of the row that had gotten completely out of hand when I moved here. The original thought was to just take it out, so I sawed it off down to about a foot high main trunk, leaving enough to get hold of with a chain and tractor to remove it. I didn't get to it right away and it sat like that for two years. It grew back and now matches the rest of the bushes in size and has been cut back just like the others several times since.
I have a pussy willow on one side of my house that had gotten over 20 ft tall.
It was starting to block the passage through that side of the yard. Then it split on year, right down to the ground. I figured it was done for so I cut it down leaving only a stump, but low enough not to be a problem for the mower. A year later it had grown back to nearly 10ft tall. It shot up new growth from right next to the old stump. Its been growing more aggressively now then ever before.
I was going to cut it down again and be rid of it because I sort of liked the how it made mowing there easier but the old woman on that side begged me to leave it because she sits and watches the birds in that tree every morning. For some reason it attracts cardinals that hang out there every year. So for now its staying I guess but it grows like a weed it seems.
I cut back another bush, I'm not sure what its called but it has 1in thorns and has seeds that look like small deformed green apples It gets red flowers in the spring. I got tired of it creeping out and putting up shoots in the lawn, if you don't get them fast they grown thorns and will puncture the garden tractor tires, or your foot if you not careful. It was also too close to the driveway. At first I began to trim it heavy on the driveway side to sort of move it away but although that worked and it did start going mostly the other way the thorns were a nuisance and it kept attracting hornets.
Four years ago it got infested with poison ivy vines that were coming up from the middle.
The poison ivy and the hornets had to go. I killed the hornets with a torch at night, then cut the thing back to the ground, and poisoned the poison ivy with Roundup. I thought the Roundup would also kill the stump, which consisted of at least a thousand small stems
.
It didn't phase it a bit. The following spring it grew back, it was growing faster than ever so i cut it back again, and before August now its 6ft tall and every bit as big as before even with the lack of rain we've seen. It does give a lot of privacy in the yard so it may stay now but I'm thinking of digging around it and building a concrete retaining wall around it to stop the creeping growth on the lawn. So far this year the new shoots haven't been growing thorns like before, they seem to stay much softer and easier to just mow down.
My yews are over 70 years old, normal pruning every year just takes off the new growth but they gain a bit every season till they get too big. Last year I did the most drastic cut back so far, I cut them back by nearly half their size, with two of them being nearly nothing but a bunch of sticks. This year so far they're nearly as big as they were before the cutting. The one bush was cut back about 3ft on one side because it had nearly closed off a walkway. That side will take another year o fill out again but it will. The rest of the bush, and most of that cut down side have already filled back in.
I had one on the end of the row that had gotten completely out of hand when I moved here. The original thought was to just take it out, so I sawed it off down to about a foot high main trunk, leaving enough to get hold of with a chain and tractor to remove it. I didn't get to it right away and it sat like that for two years. It grew back and now matches the rest of the bushes in size and has been cut back just like the others several times since.
I have a pussy willow on one side of my house that had gotten over 20 ft tall.
It was starting to block the passage through that side of the yard. Then it split on year, right down to the ground. I figured it was done for so I cut it down leaving only a stump, but low enough not to be a problem for the mower. A year later it had grown back to nearly 10ft tall. It shot up new growth from right next to the old stump. Its been growing more aggressively now then ever before.
I was going to cut it down again and be rid of it because I sort of liked the how it made mowing there easier but the old woman on that side begged me to leave it because she sits and watches the birds in that tree every morning. For some reason it attracts cardinals that hang out there every year. So for now its staying I guess but it grows like a weed it seems.
I cut back another bush, I'm not sure what its called but it has 1in thorns and has seeds that look like small deformed green apples It gets red flowers in the spring. I got tired of it creeping out and putting up shoots in the lawn, if you don't get them fast they grown thorns and will puncture the garden tractor tires, or your foot if you not careful. It was also too close to the driveway. At first I began to trim it heavy on the driveway side to sort of move it away but although that worked and it did start going mostly the other way the thorns were a nuisance and it kept attracting hornets.
Four years ago it got infested with poison ivy vines that were coming up from the middle.
The poison ivy and the hornets had to go. I killed the hornets with a torch at night, then cut the thing back to the ground, and poisoned the poison ivy with Roundup. I thought the Roundup would also kill the stump, which consisted of at least a thousand small stems
.
It didn't phase it a bit. The following spring it grew back, it was growing faster than ever so i cut it back again, and before August now its 6ft tall and every bit as big as before even with the lack of rain we've seen. It does give a lot of privacy in the yard so it may stay now but I'm thinking of digging around it and building a concrete retaining wall around it to stop the creeping growth on the lawn. So far this year the new shoots haven't been growing thorns like before, they seem to stay much softer and easier to just mow down.