Viburnum over-wide

[Your Letters 2]

Hi Janet and Steve ,  This is the view from front and back of my viburnum .  Any suggestions on how I could prune it? Or should I just leave it alone. It’s getting pretty wide and low over my other plants.  It didn’t bloom very long this year.  I’ll be on the webinar tomorrow if you get this in time. Thanks , Margie

[Janet Macunovich 32]

(photos coming! We are working out a photo file size issue... Grr, how we wish computers were as fathomable as plants are!)

Hi Margie!

 

It is getting too big for that space.. Is it possible someone has been cutting suckers/new stems off of the bottom for a while? Because a viburnum that becomes that open normally begins sending up new shoots from the base of the big trunks but I don’t see any in the photos. The absence of suckers doesn’t mean it WON’T generate new growth to cut out a trunk but the presence of suckers would be reassurance that cutting out a main trunk will result in new growth you can then keep smaller. So I am wondering if it is actually healthy. Can you send me some pictures of the base of the shrub - the place where the trunks meet ground?

If it was mine I would cut out the two widest – outside edge – trunks, right at ground level. I don’t need more photos to tell you to go ahead and do that but I would feel better if I knew more. _I_ never mind losing a plant to learn something but you might, especially a shrub that’s part of your screen!

 

Janet

[Your Letters 2]

Janet,  Thanks for your response . I was thinking about cutting to the ground the right and left trunks.   You are correct that I am trying to give myself some privacy. Especially from the South / west (left corner window) .  

 

There are new viburnum coming up that don’t look like they’re coming from the trunk.  They are nice plants at least five feet away.  I’ll send you a pic of the trunk.

Yours gratefully, Margie