One of two junipers planted anchoring a corner split down the center. Can I cut it back real hard and will it regrow? Or should I start all over?
Broken Juniper
You can cut it back but I do not think it will ever look right again. Junipers do not take this kind of damage well. I would start over.
you might ask in a tree forum. Sometimes you can bolt thru a tree or limb and the damage will heal.
Hard to tell the size from the picture. If it is over an inch in diameter, you might try tying it back up. If it is a small branch, I would prune it out and let another branch take over.
I have had good luck by tying them back tightly with baling wire. It will grow over if you are careful to line up the bark, and tie it tightly enough so the wound doesn't dry out. The tree bark will grow over the wire, if the wire doesn't rust off first.
The post of bolting and tying back a shrub runs counter to my pathological need to garden as less as possible. It's near impossible to imagine how lazy I am. But thanks anyway, I'll file the info away for a dear shrub not near the house and should I get vigorious in my gardening, bad leg nonwithstanding.
I'll remove this plant and compost it with the Leyland Cypress that literally turned brown overnight and promptly died.
