This Pro Hard Pruning Trick Can Make Your Tired Old Shrubs Look Young Again

When a shrub is young, it is a powerhouse of vigor, pumping out new shoots, lush leaves, and a symphony of blossoms. But as the years pass, even the most reliable garden staples can begin to stall. If a shrub isn’t maintained, it often develops an unattractive shape, a "leggy" look, and an overly woody aspect. Look closely, and you’ll possibly notice a hollow center with a thin canopy of foliage only at the tips.

At this stage, a grasp of the pruning basics and a light trim, or a bit of deadheading, sadly won’t be enough to get your shrub back to its finest ornamental splendor. To truly hit the reset button, you need to move beyond the basics and try rejuvenation pruning. This type of renewal pruning truly is like turning back the clock, and with select garden shrubs it can seem to take years off the appearance.

By pruning old shrubs back significantly, you stimulate its internal survival mode, forcing it to produce fresh, productive wood from the base. Sounds extreme? Sometimes drastic times call for drastic measures as they say. So is your favorite shrub looking more like a bundle of sticks than a garden highlight? Read on to find out more about the hard prune trick that can make your shrubs look as good as new.

What is Rejuvenation Pruning?

If someone tells you that rejuvenation pruning (aka renewal pruning) is an extreme measure, they are basically right. It’s a fairly hardcore procedure which involves chopping off the shrub’s stems at close-to-ground level. So you could say it's goodbye to the shrub as you know it, but if you’ve been worried about woody, leggy, twiggy loads diminishing the views in your backyard, it’s time to embrace change.

And if all goes well with your extreme makeover – well, hello to a younger, more vital version of the shrub you’ve known and loved. Turning the clock back with renewal pruning won’t work for every shrub, though, so it’s important to arm yourself with some key cutting knowhow before you chop. Generally, this extreme pruning works better with deciduous shrubs than conifers, and the best candidates tend to be twiggy and have many stems. So if you are keen to reset the clock on your favorite weary looking shrubs, where do you start?

How to Reset the Clock

There are a couple of primary methods for rejuvenation pruning. The choice depends on your patience and how much of a gap you can tolerate in your landscape. Here are the 2 different ways to reset the clock:

• The Total Reset: This is hard pruning and it is the “all in” approach. It involves cutting every single stem down to within 4-12 inches (10-25 cm) of the ground in a single session. The pro is that you get a completely uniform, brand-new plant in one go. The drawback is that your garden will have a significant hole for a few months, and you will likely lose a year of flowers. But it should grow back with the same kind of energy it had when it was young.
• The 3-Year Plan: This is more along the lines of gradual renewal. It is a gentler option for those who find drastic pruning nerve-wracking. You remove one-third of the oldest, thickest stems each year for three years, in specific portions. The shrub maintains its general shape and some height through the process. However, it takes longer to see the full transformation, and it can look patchy during the transition.

Lilacs and forsythia are classic candidates for the 3-year plan. While they can survive a total reset, they often take 2–3 years to bloom again if cut to the ground. For these, the gradual approach is almost always better to ensure you aren't staring at a flowerless bush for years. But for certain other ornamental shrubs that are looking weary, you may be better off going in with the “hard reset” option.

Best Shrubs for a Hard Prune

Not every plant responds well to the big chop, but these 4 favorites are known for their ability to bounce back better than ever.

1. Spirea

Fast-growing spirea varieties like ‘Goldmound’ or ‘Anthony Waterer’ can become messy and twiggy in the blink of an eye. If yours has stopped flowering vigorously, cut it back to 4 inches (10 cm) above the ground in late winter. Do this in late winter or early spring before any new growth is due. This rejuvenation prune encourages compact, mounded growth and a much higher density of blooms. Pro Tip: Only do a total reset every 3-5 years to avoid exhausting the root system.

2. Red Twig Dogwood

The primary appeal of this shrub (Cornus alba) is its brilliant winter bark, but here is the catch: only the young wood is bright red. As stems age, they turn a dull, corky gray. An aging dogwood exhibits few red twigs. To keep varieties like ‘Sibirica’ glowing, cut the entire plant back to about 10 inches (25 cm) from the ground in late winter or early spring. You’ll be rewarded with a flush of neon-red stems by autumn.

3. Butterfly Bush

The butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) offers abundant flowers beloved by pollinators. One of the fastest-growing shrubs, this shrub can add 5 feet (1.5m) of new growth in a single season. Because they bloom on new wood (growth produced in the current year), you shouldn’t be afraid to be aggressive and cut them back in late winter.

Cutting down to a foot high in early spring ensures huge flower spikes that are easier for pollinators to reach. In some regions, buddleia is considered invasive, so rejuvenation pruning is a great chance to check if you should be deadheading it to prevent self-seeding. Remember, it dies back naturally in colder zones and regrows from the roots.

4. Hibiscus

Commonly known as the rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus), older specimens often become bare-bottomed, with flowers only at the very top. Rejuvenation involves cutting the plant back to a foot (30 cm) above the soil after the last frost. This forces the plant to fill out from the base, creating a fuller, more hedge-like appearance.

How to Hard Prune Like a Pro

So once you have decided between the fast hard prune or the 3-year plan, bear in mind that timing is everything: Act in late winter or very early spring, just as the buds begin to swell but before leaves appear. Then prepare your cutting tools and ensure you have the right equipment for the cuts you need to make.

For 20-year-old shrubs, a pair of handheld secateurs won't be enough. You’ll need sharp loppers for medium branches (where the branches are thicker than around an inch in diameter) and a pruning saw for any wood thicker than two inches (5 cm) to ensure a clean cut that won't harbor rot. Try the Corona ComfortGel Loppers from Amazon for branches that are around an inch thick. Try a pruning saw like the Garden Guru Folding Pruning Saw with Ergonomic Handle from Amazon for branches that are around a couple of inches thick.

Sharpen any dull tools with a sharpener like the Felco F903 Sharpening Tool from Amazon. You should also sanitize your tools with rubbing alcohol before use so you don’t risk cross-contamination and the spread of fungal diseases between plants. Then you’re ready to start cutting, following one of our methods outlined above. Whichever method you go for, there are a couple of things to bear in mind.

First, consider the angle of the cut. Aim for a 45-degree angle above a dormant bud or node. Cutting too close can damage the bud, while leaving a long stub above the bud invites rot and disease. A clean, angled cut allows water to run off rather than sitting on the wound. The other consideration is the thickness of the branch. Even if you have a saw, some branches that might be beyond help, so deploy the “1-inch Rule” for these hard resets. If a particular branch is thicker than a person's wrist, the shrub might be too old to recover from a total reset (too much heartwood, not enough dormant buds). As long as your branches are one or two inches thick, you should be fine.

Stop! When to Avoid the Hard Chop

Although this rejuvenation pruning trick can work wonders on tired shrubs, there are a few instances where you should definitely steer clear. Here are some of the main exceptions to consider when deciding if you should turn back the clock:

• Sick or Stressed Shrubs: Sickly specimens may not survive. If you suspect pests or diseases, it’s wise to address those issues first. Let the shrubs recover from whatever is ailing them before pruning, assisting them with water and fertilizer.
• Evergreen Shrubs: Evergreen plants (like boxwood or yew) are different from deciduous plants and so they have different pruning requirements. Think on, as many evergreens won’t ever grow back if you cut them to the ground.
• Shrubs with a Single Main Stem: Do not hard prune a shrub that looks like a diminutive tree, with a vertical stem and branches extending from it. Generally, it acts like an evergreen and if you chop off the only stem, it’s adios amigos. So avoid any plant with a single main trunk, such as a tree hydrangea.
• Grafted Shrubs: If you have a shrub that is a cultivar grafted onto a different rootstock, hard pruning is a definite no-no. If the stem is cut to the ground, any new growth will be from the rootstock.

Pruning Aftercare for Shrubs

After rejuvenation pruning, it’s a good idea to give your shrub a little extra love. Here are the key pruning aftercare considerations to bear in mind.

• Water and Feed: Water regularly during the first summer, as the plant is working overtime to produce new stems. It’s also a good idea to top-dress the soil with 2 inches (5 cm) of high-quality compost or a balanced slow-release fertilizer to fuel that new epicormic growth.
• Manage the Bloom Gap: Don’t be alarmed if you lose a season of spring flowers with the “total reset” option. Some spring-flowering shrubs set their flower buds on last year’s wood and these will not bloom in the year they are pruned. If your shrub flowers on old wood (like certain viburnums or lilacs), you will miss a season of flowers. It’s a small price to pay for a plant that looks 20 years younger.
• Check Water Sprouts: Growth might be too fast at first. Rejuvenation often triggers a flush of very tall, thin vertical shoots called water sprouts. If your shrub looks a bit too wild by mid-summer, don’t be afraid to "tip-prune" (snip the ends) of these new stems. This encourages them to branch out sideways, creating a bushier, stronger skeleton for next year.

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