fumbler wrote:
Hello, could someone help please? I'm trying to improve the
appearance of a neglected but hopefully healthy viburnum. I've done
my best from the pics I've seen to identify it correctly as probably a
bodnantense or, less likely I think, a grandiflorum. Around 6 weeks
ago, at a height of possibly 10 feet or so, I started pruning off all
the top growth and cut out some of the longer, older branches at
ground level, removing probably about a third of the plant in one
bash. It seems to have taken happily to this but most of the new
growth is sprouting up again at the very top of the plant and this is
exactly what I'm trying to avoid. Please forgive my ignorance on
these matters, but I'm wondering if I can possibly set about the shrub
again (now!) to remove even more of this newly growing top stuff,
perhaps taking another foot or so of the old wood with it, with the
objective of getting some new growth around the middle height of the
plant. As things stand there is, as I say, a flourishing top and a
fair bit of leafy growth near the base but a bald middle. At this
stage I don't mind at all if whatever action is taken threatens the
flowering possibility for the next year or two, all I'm trying to do
is to give the plant, at this stage, a fuller leafy look.
Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Viburnum Bodnantense tends to be less spreading in habit than
Grandiflora and also has a longer flowering period over the late autumn
winter months with a its main bloom in late winter. Otherwise both
shrubs are similar with rose pink buds and white/pink blooms.

It sounds like you only gave the new stems a light pruning. Normally you
don't bother pruning it. But if you do it's best to leave it when it
finishes flowering in late March then give it good prune, taking out all
of the old wood and cutting back the newer stems by about 1/2 their
length, additionally removing any overlapping or crowded stems to open
up the shrub a bit. If you prune now you will take out the flowering
buds as well.