Meatball shrubs

13 years ago

We've just moved and bought a house with large meatball shaped shrubs in the backyard - two forsythia and two (I think) flowering quince. It looks like the previous owners were bit a over zealous in their use of the hedge trimmers for many, many years. Do you think there is any hope for these shrubs or should I start anew? They look healthy and are in nice positions. I've read that both can be pretty severely pruned (6" or so of stub left is what I read somewhere) and then let them just grow back and take their natural shapes with more judicious pruning along the way. Anybody have any luck doing something similar?
Thanks,
Andria

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Comments (4)

arrietti
13 years ago
Lol... I don't have an answer to your question but I just thought your words 'meatball shrubs' were hilarious!
I've never heard of that and thought maybe it was a type of plant. Good luck!
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
13 years ago
that usually brings to mind .. the poodle like shrubs... meatballs on sticks ...

either can be cut to 3 to 6 inches.. and totally renovated into a more natural form.. right after bloom.. or now.. its jsut whether you want of confirm ID ....

some might suggest a 3 year program of renovation ...

but if the only other option is death.. cut them down after bloom [and you can ID the second on such.. and see if what you get back by fall.. leads to reprive.. or death ...

i doubt you could kill either of them.. thru pruning.. so let your inner psycho free ...

ken
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azr2d
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the input. I will attack the shrubs this weekend with the pruning shears and cross my fingers to see what grows back.

I say meatball shrubs because every time I look at them I think of the "on top of spaghetti" song where the meatball rolled out of the door and grew a meatball tree :)
simcan
13 years ago
I am less familiar with the quince (but have been considering adding a couple with my forsythia given that they bloom at the same time) but certainly with forsythia you can chop it to six inches no problem...I did this with two huge plants and they were huge again (but much nicer) in only a couple of years.