Juniper – Pruning a Large One

Q: I recently started helping my aunt take care of her yard. She has two juniper bushes that have gotten quite large and I was want to trim them back.

A: It’s tough to prune big junipers like this and have them look nice afterward. The problem is that, if you prune them back into the limbs that don’t have any needles, they will not regrow any greenery. You’ll be looking at bare brown sticks, not a green shrub.

Many broad lived shrubs like holly and azalea can be pruned severely and they will sprout new growth……but not junipers.

Junipers need to be pruned every couple of years so that you don’t ever have to do any hard pruning.

Frankly, if your aunt doesn’t like this size I would simply replace them with something that won’t get too big.

Shrub pruning calendar

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