"Dawn" wrote in message
...
I'd like to know what this is so I can find out how to take care of it.
It seems to be very overgrown with a lot of dead branches underneath the
new growth. I'd love to whack it to the ground and let it re-grow, it's
about 3 feet wider than I'd like for the location it's in and it catches
all the neighbor's beer cans and take-out wrappers that blow out of his
pickup.


http://www.reddawn.net/dawn/photos/APR11_02.JPG
http://www.reddawn.net/dawn/photos/APR11_03.JPG
http://www.reddawn.net/dawn/photos/APR11_04.JPG

Any help identifying this bush would be appreciated.



Dawn



Looks like a very badly pruned Gold Flame spirea. They aren't meant to be
little balls, but graceful arching shrubs. If it's too big for where it is,
move it, and gradually thin out 1/3 of the oldest canes completely over the
next three years and leave the new canes to assume what size they will. It
will be gorgeous with that golden new growth and produce blooms maybe twice
a year if you keep yourself from hacking it into an unnatural golfball. For
annual pruning, again, remove any winterkill and thin out 1/3 of the oldest
canes and STOP. Hedge clipper pruning creates lots of dead and twiggy and
growth on the bottom that doesn't get any light and can lead to disease.
Formally trimmed boxwood hedges have their place, but hacking flowering
shrubs like spirea, azalias, and forsythia into golfballs should be severely
punished, along with crepe murder.

Sunflower
MS 7b