Sorry, I am southern Ontario, Canada, zone 6a. They are in a front garden, and I think were just cut off (about 3 ft off)

you will need to name your GOAL ... for us to tell you how to make it happen ...

aka.. what flora said .. lol.. ken

The leaves look like cornus, dogwood

Agree with huggorm, can we get a better closeup?

I will get a better picture, and a bigger picture as well. I just want it to look clean and on purpose I guess.

looks like Pagoda Dogwood, highly valued for its layered branching habit. The nicest ones I have seen are untouched by human hands. Search online images for Cornus alternifolia.

Terribly butchered cornus kousa. I would start by correcting mistakes after transplanting to an appropriate location. Leader training next spring. Shearing C. Kousa is cruel and unusual punishment for the tree and my eyes LOL.

What Sam said...

In particular, the plant's own natural form is the one you want.

Absolutely and unequivocally NOT Cornus kousa.

sam, hard to tell for sure, but looks like opposite leaves. If so, not pagoda dogwood.

. I just want it to look clean and on purpose I guess.

==>>> not good enough ... here are some ideas to make you goal progress

1 ... no shrub needs pruning for the heck of it ... you do such to accomplish a goal ... e.g. make smaller.. restrict to a space ... etc ..

2.... what is that behind it neighbors>???? .. do you want to maintain the privacy?? .. if so ... you would not be chopping it down 3 ft.. eh ...

3 .. if its your house.. then is it blocking the window sight out ... then maybe you want to take them down some amount ... but i would not simply shear it straight across like a hedge.. sam touched on that when he/she said: highly valued for its layered branching habit

4.. but of course.. if you clear the view out ... then you allow a view in ... do you really want the neighbors able to look in ... there is probably a give and take in there somewhere ..

5 .. also .. some peeps would not want the reduced security of not allowing a clear view of the foundation .. in bad neighborhoods .. especially near a heavily used door .... someone copuld be hiding in them .. but if the door is rarely used ... it wouldnt matter ...

the point is.. we cant really answer these questions .... we might be able to help define your answer with a pic of the front of the house in toto ...

ken

Not a shrub. Cornus whatever it may be, shearing isn't the way to go. If you want formal sheared shrubs, remove and replace. Put these poor dogwoods out of their misery. My advice stated above will still work whatever the species may be, and transplant in the winter starting leader work in the spring. It's a hard but rewarding process.

I don't necessarily want a shrub, I just want to correct what had been done to it before it became mine. It won't be moved. Should I just leave it as it is? I can pay another picture tomorrow morning.

How long have you lived with this plant? Have you seen it through an entire year yet? In your position I would leave it entirely alone until you have got to know it better. You can always prune it in the future but you can't stick branches back on. If left to its own devices it will gradually assume its natural shape again and if you decide you like it then you've saved yourself some work. The stone wall looks nice so you might want to limb it up eventually. But nothing is urgently required at present.

what floral_uk said, that msg should be chiseled in stone.

I would remove it if you don't want to transplant. This tree has alternate leaves so I am assuming it is cornus florida/kousa. Either way, these trees would easily overgrow the space.

Logan, do you even bother to read what you write before you post???

The plants in question have opposing leaves, not alternate. The only species of dogwood that has an alternate leaf arrangement is Cornus alternifolia and these plants are not that! And I'm not sure why everyone is coming to the conclusion that these are tree dogwoods. At that height and habit - even pruned back - I'd lean towards one of the shrub forms: Cornus racemosa or amomum or even sericea, which has a huge native range (although stem color is not much of a match). And cutting these shrubs back hard or pollarding/coppicing is very common.

I'm not assuming it is a tree dogwood. I don't know Cornus well enough to assume anything. But I am advocating leaving it alone for a full season to see what it does.

Well, opposing leaves. Sorry, I got confused a bit. I would recommend the natural form of the plant, but this won't work right against a patio.

More close ups of the leaf arrangement needed. I, too, think it's pagoda dogwood.

Pagoda dogwood is a nice tree, but will get too wide for that space. I wish I could find a pagoda dogwood to plant in my yard.

They need to be moved to a more suitable space. They can get about 10' wide.

From the start it has looked to me like Cornus controversa. The habit is definitely that of a dogwood of this type, anyway (maybe you are too far north for C. controversa).

>They can get about 10' wide<

Average crown spreads of 45 ft., 27 ft. and 50 ft. have been recorded for specific examples of C. alternifolia. Generally larger growing (one of its common names is giant dogwood) C. controversa has been measured at least as wide.

Might be Roundleaf Dogwood (Cornus rugosa).

[https://www.houzz.com/magazine/cornus-rugosa-an-understated-elegant-native-dogwood-stsetivw-vs~67967882[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/cornus-rugosa-an-understated-elegant-native-dogwood-stsetivw-vs~67967882)

I'm siding with embo, looks more like controversa than alternifolia. I grow controversa, and not only the foliage but the twigs look like it. As said above, these want to be large, WIDE (for a dogwood) trees. Advise would be to move them to an open spot and let them develope their full potential.

Not Pagoda I don't think. The leaves are different from the one I have.