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Shaping Holly

alfharris8alfharris8 Posts: 513
in Problem solving
Please can anyone offer ideas as to what I should do with this Holly? Apologies for sideways on photo. My photography as bad as my gardening knowledge.  Thanks. 

Posts

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    I'm not sure what you mean by "shaping" 
    Do you want it tidied into a better shape, or cut hard to start topiary?
    Devon.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    Some hollies’ natural way of growth means they lend themselves to formal clipping, whereas others look best growing ‘loose and unfettered’. 

    Do you know which variety you have?

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





  • alfharris8alfharris8 Posts: 513
    I don't know what it is exactly but it isn't prickly and has dark green,  glossy leaves. 
    I would just like to get it to grow into a nice shape, doesn't have to be especially formal.
    It has a tree like trunk so don't know whether to lose the thinner off shoots growing from trunk or make it more bush like.

  • FlyDragonFlyDragon Posts: 834
    I've got two very messy holly trees at the back of the garden that look like a very similar variety, dark leaves, no thorns, tree rather than shrub structure.  They are growing quite straggly long branches that are then drooping. 

    I've heard you can cut them back practically to nothing to got a more compact/neater shape and they still recover, its on the to do list this year but I admit I'm nervous! 

    If anyone's done it would be great to hear success stories or tips! 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    edited February 2021
    When we had a tree surgeon in to do another job ( I can't remember whether it was spring or late autumn), I asked him to slice the  trunk  of a prickly leaved holly. about 4" in diameter down to about 3 ft. It produced new leaves within  a couple of months
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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