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Elderberry pruning

strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
in Problem solving
Advice and opinions are much appreciated on this. We've had the yearly  hedge row cut back done, I was surveying the results and spotted this section. It looks like this elderberry has grown up too high for the hedge, meaning there are thick stems all the way to the top, leaving no room for new green growth to bush out at the right height next year.

It looks like the guys have cut it back a bit lower to account for this (it's a large hedge row, so an overall chainsaw job not precision pruning). However I'm not sure this is going to grow back to fill the gap.

I'm considering cutting back the thicker vertical stems even lower. Although this will increase the gap for now, I think it will help get the right growth next year. However there's also a risk it will just stretch.

I'd appreciate thoughts and suggestions before I go at it with the snippers.




Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I’d get a saw and reduce some of the thick older ‘stems’ by half. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • CeresCeres Posts: 2,698
    I've had elderberries grow back from a small stump left in the ground after trying to get rid of the plant so I reckon you can get away with cutting yours back quite a bit. They seem to be able to take any amount of rough treatment though the very hot dry weather this year almost killed one off. It's recovering. They are an untidy plant and the only way to keep them under some degree of control is to lop them back a lot more than the other hedge plants.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    I would try taking back of a third of the thickest stems to their base and another third by half.  That way new growth next spring will come from all the plant and fill out the gaps nicely.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • strelitzia32strelitzia32 Posts: 758
    edited November 2020
    Thanks all. I'll get snipping at the next opportunity (ideally when I'm not going to get blown into the next county). I don't want to cut this to the ground, because I want to keep the hedgerow style of no growth in the bottom 2ft, but hopefully a hard cut back will indeed return this section to bushy growth. 

    If I don't come back, I've been impaled on a hawthorn :s
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