We just moved top this house, these knarly shrubs were very neglected. mountain laurel is our state flower in Connecticut, So I would like to save these shrubs but they are extremely over grown and want to avoid killing them by over pruning. see picture below- the branching starts at about 8' and most of the foliage is at 10-12'. They do get a few hours of sun daily from one side (full shade behind). After the pic I already removed the odd trees growing to close on the right and lots of dead branches. But I dont see a way to stimulate low growth without cutting off ALL of the foilage, Does anyone know if that will kill them? or is there a better method? Or should I chop them to the ground. ?