Hi.

I've had some garden work done today and I asked them to prune the confifers to about 1/2 the height. The just seem to have lopped the top half without any shaping of it.
When I asked him he said "you can't cut the sides as the branches turn brown".

Is that true? It looks a bit odd now! Do I just wait till it turns back to a more normal shape?!

Thanks very much.

On Mon, 18 Jun 2012 07:29:17 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

Hi.

I've had some garden work done today and I asked them to prune the confifers to about 1/2 the height. The just seem to have lopped the top half without any shaping of it.
When I asked him he said "you can't cut the sides as the branches turn brown".

Is that true? It looks a bit odd now! Do I just wait till it turns back to a more normal shape?!

Thanks very much.

The branches don't turn brown but if the green part is trimmed it does
not regrow so you finish up with just the brown part. Conifers can
only be reduced by cutting the top off.

Steve

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If these are leylandii types, or a variety of other cypresses, then what they say is more or less true, and as others have said they could have trimmed the sides a bit, provided they stayed within the green.

It will recruit a new leader and send up a new top, but it will probably look rather misshapen for some years, if not forever.

If you want leylandii nicely shaped and to size, you have to prune them every year.

Your story explains Why Not To Grow Leylandii. The only good thing about leylandii is if you prune them at ground level, they don't bother you again.