Davy wrote:
I have a holly tree that was distorted by a large conifer that grew up
beside it and took the light. The conifer is now gone but the holly
has several ugly long bare branches on one side. It found the
following advice on the web:

To rejuvenate a holly, "hat rack" it in late winter by cutting back
the branches by half to three-quarters of their length. The remaining
plant will have few leaves and look like a hat rack, but in spring it
will flush out with new foliage from all the pruning cuts. In two to
three years, it will be fully covered in leaves. Hat racking will
result in a plant much reduced in size, but still full of foliage.


But I am not sure if cutting back just a couple of branches will
cause them to generate new shoots. Anybody any experience?

thanks

Davy

My experience of cutting back holly hedges hard (effectively defoliating one
side to remove a 1m plus pavement overhang) is that they will leaf up as the
above advice describes.

pk