Looks like it may be Pfitzer Juniper (Juniperus x media 'Pfitzeriana'). Start by removing what is dead and then by judiciously removing branches back to a fork you can keep them somewhat under control.

tj

Thanks to you both! Love it when I get a quick answer. Maybe I'll try pruning to see how I like it and then if I don't.. Yank City! Was thinking of putting different varieties of Hydrangeas in there to fill after I grade the dirt a little bit with some low growers down in front of higher growers. Maybe some Endless Summers in front of Oak Leaf Snow Queens so when I prune the Endless in the late fall, the Oakleaf's will give good winter interest to break up the look of the long wall? Thoughts?

Both those hydrangeas tend to look pretty vacant in the winter, but like the idea of the summer color of Endless and especially the fall color of oakleaf. But, if the wall is interesting and is in good shape there is nothing wrong with seeing it through the winter.

Yea, I'll try to post a picture of the wall this evening. It's a nice looking grey stone wall. Probably been there for 50-60 years. Nice "patina" to it. Thanks a bunch! Ideas for greenery to put in front of the endless if I go this route? The endless youtube video has some nice greenery plants but I have no clue what they are called... reminded me of a Hosta sieboldiana.

those stay low and would they look good in front of this set up? Thanks again!

looks just like my grey owl juniper... on these far away pis ..... Juniperus virginiana 'Grey Owl

you do NOT shear it.. you do not do it willy nilly.. say just shaving 2 feet off it ...

you would have to get in there.. and prune out forks in the road .. lets say ...

following the trunk up ... if one goes horizontal ... and one shoots straight up ... you could remove the vertical ... to reduce height ... while leaving the other ...

i know thats not very much of a description ... but understand.. that you do not cut back to bare wood ... you always have to cut back to a live branch.. else you will make it so ugly ... you will probably end up tearing it all out ...

now.. the downside to this.. is the dried needles.. will drive you insane.. if they insult your skin ... they will cut or poke you.. and once salty sweat gets to it.. you will go insane ...

the one time i went at a huge plant like this.. i did it in jeans.. and 3 long sleeve shirts ... and a windbreaker .. and taped my gloves onto that stuff.. and taped around my boots to keep it out of there..

its not an allergy thing ... as far as i know ...

ken

ps: a stump cut to the ground .. will not resprout ... and i would not go trying to dig them all out.. in front of an historic wall ... just cut flush.. and plant things where the stumps arent ...

oh ... and BTW .. one of the reasons you cant give them a haircut.. is because they are not shrubs ... they are more properly.. conifers.. which are trees ....

there is a forum for each type of plant ... but all the same peeps hang in each.. so no use duplicating the post ...

so if you wanted to google pruning of such.. you will be much better off using the term conifer.. rather than shrub ...

ken

Here is the wall as well as a picture from the BACK of the bushes after my first pass through of trimming. Is it usual for a huge % of the branches on underside of bush to be dead as all get out? I mean a TON. I bet it was planted in the mid 50's.

If I took it out and did the Hydrangea field, I'd obviously pull out all the rock, lose the Mertle and am already pulling all the weedy trees to the user's right of my boy... the wall is on the right side of the picture and hard to see in bottom picture. So since the Juniper is so far away from wall, there would be no structural issues yanking them out. Thoughts on what to do in this field?

I'd think the area with the rocks gets a lot of shade to part shade, the area with Juniper gets part shade.

Thanks again!

I would think twice about pulling them out. They are holding soil on that hill, the hill the wall was built for. Hydrangeas don't do that, and need extra watering in the heat, hydra, water, and you might not want a lot of water constantly at the wall. Wet soil can move easier.

They planted them there for soil erosion control. They are excellent at it by the way.

Good luck to you, I hope you are happy with the results in any case.

Interesting thought, but these things aren't up against the wall, they are far away. The land is pretty flat between the wall and my circle drive which is where these Juniper's are...

Just got a bid from my yard guy for 300.00 to remove all of it. including stumps. I gotta take him up on that deal...

If you keep selectively removing evergreen plants and replacing with deciduous you are going to have no winter leaves and no bulk to your plantings at any time of the year. Each basic category of decorative garden plant has a particular role that it plays in a planting, evergreen shrubs provide structure that deciduous shrubs do not. If you want to make an attractive hydrangea display you should probably design it so you keep (or replace) the evergreen shrubs to the sides of the hydrangea grouping so the scene does not become just sticks and stones, with no winter foliage and no significant foliage density.