Be careful with pruning them often. Some paniculatas flop easily no matter what... and pruning will cause development of new stems/branches that, when new, are weak and prone to flopping. Letting the stems get old and harder wood will help some... but will not cure propensity for flopping.

If concerned of the impact that wet blooms may be having, you can deadhead the blooms instead in autumn (not the same thing as pruning).

Thank you for your input.I have not routinely pruned it. This is the first hard cut back I’ve done. The branches I removed were narrow which is why the tree was drooping so much. I had a very difficult time gardening around it, causing me to bend or stoop to get under the branches. I actually think what you describe happening is exactly what was happening. Each branch removed already had buds all up and down which would have sprouted weak branches with blooms. I am trying to get a more upright growth pattern and felt cutting back to the main branches was the way to do it. We will see whether this works or not.

Debra

Gardengal,I have written two times to you and they both vanished. One more time, I think what luis_pr said above was actually happening. Branches were sprouting out everywhere and they were thin with sometimes huge blooms. I had looked up paniculata pruning online and it actually said fall or spring was acceptable for this variety. I was actually hoping to prevent harm to the tree from winter breakage. It was so hard cutting back the blooms last winter in the snow when I realized what was happening. I will try sending a pic of what was cut off.

Thanks for the reminder GardenGal.

No luck with the photo after 5 attempts——I give up! :-(

Finally a picture