Just to be safe don't prune any evergreen till late winter-early spring. Depending on what they are, you can cut them right down to the stump then and see what happens. If they are really far-gone and butt ugly, I would hire someone to remove them. Believe me, it is worth the money! Then you can replace them with nice young plants that you will enjoy much more than the old stuff. If you do decide to change, make sure you check the mature height and widths of replacments. Nothing is more disheartening than shrubs and trees that grow out of their allotted spaces.

There is something more disheartening than shrubs and trees that grow out of their allotted spaces. Shrubs and trees that were planted in the wrong place to begin with & then pruned poorly to try to make them fit.

Evergreens isn't much of a description to go on if you're looking for pruning advice. If you have the typical foundation plantings of Taxus/Juniperus (yews/junipers) they require a different approach to pruning. Junipers will not normally back-bud if you remove all foliage from a branch. If you prune a juniper back to a stump, you will have a dead stump that does require removing. Taxus, on the other hand, can be pruned hard if it's in reasonably good health. They back-bud with abandon. With yews, to avoid that bare look, it's best to thin branches first to allow light and air movement to the plants interior branches. This will cause back-budding & the plant can be sequentially pruned back without the "just been completely scalped" look.

I maintain my mom's foundation plantings of both yews and junipers that are a little older than 50 years. Pruned to show off the heavy old trunks, the plantings exhibit a unique character you cannot find in "cookie cutter" young material. I would encourage you to make the effort to find a way to save the old plants that are, or one day will be one-of-a-kind specimens.

Al

"Depending on what they are, you can cut them right down to the stump then and see what happens." Is what I wrote in my former post. I agree itÂs wonderful to save old material but most people are not pruning experts and want basic info. Sometimes the plant has out grown the house sometimes to the point covering it, which I suspect is threedgrads problem. Cutting them way back to me is the easiest solution. Most law enforcement recommends not having large sized plantings around building foundations anyway.

Here is a link that might be useful: Henrico Va. Police

What about arborvitae? Do they adapt to pruning? I have two of the round ones next to my entry walk and they are too big, overgrowing the walkway, etc. I'm not a fan of the meatball or buzz cut look so many gardeners think makes their lawn look tidy and neat.
I have a SUV, and would like to try to yank the old ones out to replace with a 'mini' variety of ...whatever. Has anyone ever tried this? i.e. tie a rope or chain around the trunk of the plant and other end to the truck and pull them out. ? I would be interested in the results of any attempts. Thanks, Pondy

My mother whacked her globe arborvitae way back (don't ask)before I could stop her and boy, it wasn't a pretty sight. I waiting to see if they recover. May someone else can post a better idea but I would replace yours. I don't know about the truck thing, sounds pretty dangerous. If the chain breaks, wouldn't that thing whip around? Yikes!

Pndwelr- my husband removed stumps with his full-size Bronco. He still had to dig down quite a ways to get things loose first. Oh, and it attracts all the neighborhood guys when you do this. Expect quite a crowd.

So after the snow and cold is gone - like end of March or April - would that be the time to prune? The bushes are not junipers, that I know. But they have grown to 6-7' tall in places. I want to cut them to 4-5'. Thanks.

As a general rule evergreens should not be pruned after labor day and before easter. They are already subject to sunburn and windburn during the winter the added stress can set them back a lot. Most evergreen won't look too special if you have to cut them back into the old wood and will take a long time to recover since you will be removing the energy souces(needles)

I have a SUV, and would like to try to yank the old ones out to replace with a 'mini' variety of ...whatever. Has anyone ever tried this?

No, but I have watched with great interest as others tried this. It is really humorous. Next time somebody in the neighborhood is going to try this I would appreciate advance notice so I could show up with a lawn chair and cold beers.

Long story short unless you have the world's loosest soil your SUV isn't going to pull them out. It is embarrasing for a heavy truck owner to be humbled by a little old shrub, but that is what happens.

The truck can be helpful, but as cantstop indicated, there is still much digging to do before they will come loose.

might b kind of late to post this now since the orrigional post was quite some time ago. i work with maintaining rental properties and quite often have dead, overgrown, or just poorly placed shrubs/trees that need to be removed. i regularly pull them out with my f-350. it often takes a few tugs, but they usually aren't too difficult to remove.

to expand on that a lil more i'll add that i've never done any digging first and i've never had a chain swing in a dangerous fashion. (however i do always make sure that nobody is standing close just in case.)
you have to b willing to be a bit rough on your truck, though, and b prepared to give a couple of good hard jerks on the chain. u can't expect to just gently pull on it.

In regard to yanking out bushes with your vehicle - my husband's co-worker tied a chain to the bush (as neighbors watched) gave it a few good tugs and watched as the chain flew over the roof of the car smashing the windshield and damaging the hood. This happened to another friend too but I think the bush came with it. Is it worth the paint job, damage or the injury it can cause?