Very. The whole lot can be cut to the ground regularly. That’s how you get a good display of red twigs. The one third idea doesn't apply to this kind of shrub grown for its new stems and is only a rule of thumb to stop the inexperienced wreaking havoc anyway.

Great article about hard pruning shrubs, including shrubby dogwoods: https://hayefield.com/2011/03/27/cut-back-shrubs/

Thank you Teuth and floral_UK!

I really like the article Teuth provided a link to. Great photos and commentary. I pruned my arctic fire red twig shrubs heavily in the fall. I will have to remember to fertilize them in the spring. They are growing in a bed of pachysandra and the pachysandra is too vigorous.

there is a thing called rejuvenation pruning ... where you remove 1/3 of the plant to about 6 inches ... once per year ... thereby keeping the shrub young and smaller ...

you do NOT remove one third of the canopy ... at height .... like a bad haircut ...

that said.. i agree with flora.. but my term is.. run it over with the truck shrub ... if you can figure out how to kill this thing ... let me know.. and ill stop running mine over with the truck every now and then ..

do whatever you want.. and if you dont like what you end up with.. do it again .. and again ... and again ...

since you are in new england ... and im thinking colder short season NE ... then you wont get as much regrowth in one summer ... as warmer longer season climes ... but dont worry.. it will be soon enough.. you are looking at while sitting in in your truck thinking.. i need to teach that thing a lesson ... lol ..

ken

I use a lot of stems for the winter decoration and prefer more than one year old stems for size. So I basically do the 1/3 method and works great. Plus, some of these dogwoods serve as screening so if I were to cut them short every year I'd have to wait for them to come back up to the height I need instead of providing the instant screen once it leafs out.