Cut above pair of alive buds. It will start branching from this point.
Any stems without live buds should be cut down to the ground.

ego45,
Thanks for your input. I trimmed out all stems...all had no live buds.
I do have one more question though....All this 'new' growth appears to be coming from the very bottom of the plant, not on any of the 'old' wood. I thought Nikko only bloomed from old wood???? Mine are both loaded with flowers/buds so....why did that happen?

Gardenlady - I'd be interested to read your updates, OK?
Have fun!!!

George - Would it be detrimental to Nikko's health, to leave a few dead canes around? I have in the past, for support ... cut them to the ground only before putting them to bed for Winter.

"Cut above pair of alive buds. It will start branching from this point."

The tons of young canes that sprouted from the ground are zooming up monstrously, leaving behind the obviously, live, old ones that are truly taking so long to burst ... the ones that have, leaves seem to stay tinier, more like the paniculata foliage. My ??? ... are all the energies getting usurped by the young & suggesting to sacrifice the old or is it ... after a great show, the main players need to sit & rest?

I'm keeping to mind, our unusually, snow-covered past Winter & many, cloudier days this Spring & quite wet too ... everything is coming up a thad later - my row of Mem-Day Peonies, for the 1st time, have not flashed yet.

Thanks!
MD

Ditas,
The only update I have is: plenty of flower buds after the styrofoam protection this past winter. The strange thing is all the new growth is from the bottom of the shrub with flower buds, yet all the brown stems had dead buds from last year. So my styrofoam box didn't work? If that is the case, why all the new flowers on 'new' growth? Still confused. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: NB

Oops, sorry for the small picture of NB...forgot to enlarge before sending. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Enlarged NB Photo

Hi Pam - You are certainly right, your young Nik will have blooms galore!
You must have clipped all your old canes huh, she looks so neat?! I did prune too & every single one I clipped, were green under the dark brown old skin ... I figure, will exfoliate eventually. I felt bad but kept on ... can't go wrong if all those bumps will get the idea to hurry up & stretch from their protective cocoons.

About: *"why all the new flowers on 'new' growth?"*
I think that the bottom part of old canes may have branched out under all the mulch & made it look like, they are all new young canes. This has happened to mine in the past when, even during those years she was not winter protected, (about 4 x in 16 years) she she gave me a few blooms when all the other old canes were deader than dead LOL ... this is just MHO. Or perhaps your plant may have been mislabeled & is really an ES ('hope not, if you really love your BN) ... I read in another thread that this mislabeling happens occasionally.

I just came home from the nursery - was told that because of our unusually long, past Winter, plus too many rainy/cloudy days this Spring, bloom time for us here, is about 2 wks late - the reason old Nik has not a single broccoli clusters yet.

Can't wait to see your Nik's pics when she opens up, I'm sure you'll post them, right? :-)

Ditas,
Oh yes, I will post pictures because I'm thrilled to death with all the flower clusters NB has.
As for the mix up on labeling.....I doubt that happened because I have had these for years, probably 10yrs and I don't think ES was on the market then.
Your idea of the new stems coming from the very bottom of 'old' stems sounds logical to me. And...many of the 'brown sticks' I prunned out had a touch of green under the bark also...but the 'buds' were fried.
I wish you luck with your NB..post a picture if you can. We can all learn from each other's experience. That is why I love this forum so much! :-)
Happy Gardening~

Hi Pam - My old NB finally produced some bud clusters - just 3 so far & guess what ... all 3 on new canes from the ground too!!! I guess they sprouted from old cane just beneath the heavy mulch I left from last Winter.

The bumps on the old canes are finally leafing out, many of them. Ego45 was right ... cutting a couple of notches above live bumps certainly got them going. I ended up cutting as much as a foot or so now they look much better at 3' tall & round. I'm hoping for more buds to show up as soon as those new branches from the old woods take off.

Yours will be putting on a show soon, have fun!

Well Ditas, ...you're doing better than me if the 'bumps' on old canes are leafing out....none of mine had the potential to do that. I took my fingernail and scratched at many just to find them brittle and dry, no life. So......I held my breath and prunned them out! I'm glad I did though because it was distracting from all the new growth and many flower buds. Now I have a Prezosia (sp) Hyrangea, it is loaded and still leafing out from brown stems...so who knows......
Thanks for sharing your experience. When mine show some color....I will post a picture, hope you'll do the same.
Happy Gardening~
Pam