pruning overgrown junipers - Ask Extension
How should a badly overgrown juniper hedge be pruned? In pruning if most of the foliage is removed, will the hedge sprout new foliage to compensat...
Knowledgebase
pruning overgrown junipers #465307
Asked June 25, 2018, 4:30 PM EDT
How should a badly overgrown juniper hedge be pruned? In pruning if most of the foliage is removed, will the hedge sprout new foliage to compensate?
Weld County Colorado
Expert Response
Hi,
Junipers are difficult to prune and shape after they are overgrown. Please see comments below from CSU fact sheets and also a comment related to this question.
Thanks,
Janene
When you prune your overgrown juniper, don't prune it back to old wood that has no growth on it. Junipers do not tolerate heavy pruning because of the lack of new growth on the old wood. It is best to prune no more than 1/3 of each branch. If this won't solve the problem, I'd suggest digging out the old, overgrown juniper and replacing it with a new one.
CSU factsheets:
It is common to see junipers and arborvitae that have overgrown their space. Because new growth comes ONLY from the growing tips, branches cannot be pruned back into wood without needles. If the shrub is pruned back to bare wood, it will have a permanent bare spot.
Junipers are difficult to prune and shape after they are overgrown. Please see comments below from CSU fact sheets and also a comment related to this question.
Thanks,
Janene
When you prune your overgrown juniper, don't prune it back to old wood that has no growth on it. Junipers do not tolerate heavy pruning because of the lack of new growth on the old wood. It is best to prune no more than 1/3 of each branch. If this won't solve the problem, I'd suggest digging out the old, overgrown juniper and replacing it with a new one.
CSU factsheets:
It is common to see junipers and arborvitae that have overgrown their space. Because new growth comes ONLY from the growing tips, branches cannot be pruned back into wood without needles. If the shrub is pruned back to bare wood, it will have a permanent bare spot.
For shrubs that are getting too large, it is better to prune them back as they begin to overgrow the site. Pruning back severely overgrown shrubs generally gets into wood without needles. Consider replacing severely overgrown plants with smaller cultivars or other species.
Junipers and arborvitae growing in the shade are rather intolerant of pruning due to slow growth rates.
