Recently, I wrote about selective pruning, an important maintenance practice used to remove broken, damaged and diseased branches from trees and shrubs. Selective pruning is used to improve their shape, control their size and increase air circulation to discourage disease. But there's another, more severe, method of pruning _ rejuvenation pruning _ and if it's warranted, now is the ideal time to undertake the task.
Rejuvenation pruning is the extreme cutting back of (otherwise healthy) overgrown or underproductive shrubs. The method should be used when shrubs have become overgrown, present with a wide open area in their centers or simply have declined and are failing to thrive, fruit or flower. The goal is to force the plant to replace older, weaker stems and less productive branches with fresh, new, vigorous ones. It's drastic, but when all is said and done, it will be like having a brand-new plant.
Do not attempt rejuvenation pruning on needled evergreen shrubs. They should never be pruned beyond their needles, that is, cuts shouldn't be made on bare wood. Likewise, do not completely cut down shrubs that grow from a single trunk. Rejuvenation pruning is intended for caning shrubs, those that send up multiple stems straight from the ground.
