where are you ..

when you take off the top.. and even the sides... drastically ... you will open big gaping holes in the canopy ...

in warmer climes.. it might fill in rather quickly .. a year or 3 ...

in the colder north ... it might take 3 to 7 years ...

this is a conifer ... its a tree .. trees grow different than shrubs ... like boxwood or privet hedges ... shrubs can take the shearing you are talking about ... and by the end of the season.. nearly fill back in ...

you cant quite do that with a tree ... relatively speaking.. they grow in slow motion comparatively speaking ...

if you have more than one.. go to town on it.. and by fall.. see the result.. and if you dont like it ... get rid of them all ...

we need an ID.. looks like thuja to me ... and how about a pic of the whole .. so we can better understand what you are thinking about ...

removing a prior owners mistake.. has little to do .. with saving a nightmare ...

ken

"Or I can't cause dead is dead, and green won't sprout no more ."

Exactimento!!

dead is dead, and green won't sprout no more

==>>> what you are asking.. is whether there are dormant buds on brown wood ... with many, if not most conifers.. there are NOT ... so your surmise correctly ...

and that is why i differentiated between a conifer and the other types of plants ...

ken

I don't know why anyone would choose to "shear" a conifer like this ever- cut it back perhaps with pruners if you must, but shearing leaves such an ugly, tortured result.

If you hate it that bad take it out and put something in that fits your vision better.

probably because the prior owner bought a cute little plant.. and sited it for the size it was at that instant in time .... with no expectation of the thing growing into the tree it is ...

and the new owner comes along.. and wants to be nice to the tree .. but has a hankering to reclaim half his yard ... lol

just get rid of it ... if you have a bunch of such.. and its a site cblock of sorts .. keep in mind.. you dont have to do all at once ... so as to maintain some semblance of a site block..

ken

ps: its always great to blame a former owner ... i have done so with visitors to my garden.. when i was fully responsible... lol