Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Advice on pruning/fixing my Viburnum shrub, 1 by kTalia

kTalia wrote:
Darn, I only checked on online reference for the pruning time and they suggested winter for pruning. I knew I was a bit early, but they really were in very sad condition after what I had done to them in the spring. A little more research suggests early spring before the new leaves come out unless they needed repair.

I might have been a bit vague about my intentions earlier. I really don't want to rip the Viburnum out, it seems so wasteful. Other than the left one that occasionally runs into my front walk, they aren't hurting anything. I don't mind them hiding the front patio if that's what would be best for them, I just thought it might be nice to keep a small window of openness there. Really I just would like to know what's best as far as how they should look and be maintained.

The poor things were choking to death in the middle with thick over grown branches that were mangled in knots, most growing back down into the ground. I think the combination of my misguided grooming in the past and being mashed down by heavy snows the last two winters was responsible for most of that. Anyway, I took a crack at one of them late this afternoon and here is how the shrub looks now. Does this seem reasonable? Or should I have done something different? I mostly just thinned things out of the base and middle to clean it up. I didn't really touch anything on the exterior of the shrub.

This message was edited Oct 8, 2007 10:14 PM