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If you can hardly get to your front door because the old shrubs have taken over or if you can't see out of the windows because your shrubs are too tall, leggy and unkept, it's time to renew your landscape.
Overgrown shrubs can be thinned now through a process called `renewal pruning. We can remove as close to the ground the oldest canes and those that cross over each other. Leave medium-sized and smaller canes for this year's growth. You have to be careful not to cut the remaining healthy canes back from the top; this will only cause more bushiness on the exterior of the shrub and create more legginess.
New shoots will develop from the cane stubs you remove and will help fill-in the growth. We can thin the oldest canes every 2 or 3 years, and the shrubs will maintain vitality without becoming over-grown. Avoiding shearing of tips at all times; this promotes shading-out and weak growth. It also removes flower buds of lilac, snowball and similar shrubs.
Over-grown shrubs like upright junipers too close to the house that tend to lean outward, and evergreens originally planted too close together can be removed and replaced with more dwarf evergreens or those that grow slowly. Removal also gives you the chance to relocate new plantings for more space, correcting a problem started at the time of the original planting.
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| Overgrown evergreens removed | Replanted with small shrubs, flowers |
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| Same corner later in the season | View from window opened up with shade garden |
Replacing evergreens close to doorways, steps, sidewalks and patios, use dwarf mugo pines, compact spreader varieties of juniper such as dwarf blue pfitzer, armstrong, sea green or mint Julep.
For very low evergreens, we use creeping junipers. Some of the many types available include: Blue Rug, Hughes, Blue Chip, Buffalo and Webbers.
You also can consider replacing large, overgrown evergreens with more manageable dwarf varieties of non-evergreen shrubs.
These plants can be treated much like garden perennials. We will cut all stems to the ground in early spring. New growth will be dense and full of flowers by June. With our knowledgeable staff help we can help you renew your landscape with plants that grow slower, stay compact by themselves or need only one cut back each spring.
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