You can shear a holly with a hedge trimmer no problem. Ignore the crooked and visualize the outside edge of the tree. Cut what is outside that line. Filled in and with good exterior form, the holly will hide the crooked

I got a different interpretation of your holly than Christopher C When you said you cut out a black birch, I saw a "wild" holly like is growing in our yard. A "wild" holly is I believe native to eastern Carolina and while slow can grow to over 30 feet high. I believe it technically is an American Holly though our does not seem to have the density of leaves and berries I have seen in pictures.

You did not post a picture of your Holly but with mine it maintains its shape. I periodical trim cross branches and low branches that gouge my bald head when I mow under it.

I have a 14yo self sown wild holly, Ilex opaca, that is 18 inches high. Very slow.

Not an exact answer to your question, but relevant: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4977109/we-agree-some-cutting-grown-trees-need-aggressive-waterspout-control

If it is hopelessly crooked (a picture would help) you can always cut it to the ground at the end of winter and make it generate a new, single, main stem.

a pic or two would be worth a couple thousand more words ...

use the camera/photo button below the box you type a reply in.. wait until it clears.. then hit send ... i find its best if you are already signed in ...

and dont shear it .. crikey ...

welcome to the forums ...

ken

Shearing hollies is a very common practice!! And depending on the holly species, may be the best way of approaching this. Here, the most common hollies encountered are English holly (Ilex aquifolium) and Japanese holly (Ilex crenata) and both of them are routinely sheared. The English holly - which easily grow into large trees here - because it has ferocious spines and you risk your life with normal tree pruning techniques and even certified arborists follow this shearing methodology. And Japanese holly is an effective boxwood substitute and like boxwood, is often sheared into a tight hedge or defined shape.

IOW, you run no risk to the plant by using a hedge trimmer :-))

so gal supports the idea of going after a 20 year old holly thats never been sheared... and shearing it .. ok .. i want to see the after pix ... im not buying it ...

but it really is moot without pix .. since i bet im thinking of a huge old shrub ... and i cant fathom shearing it for the first time in its life ... but then... i dont stalk hollys around town to know any better.. maybe it is a thing ...

no pruning.. of any kind ... so that includes shearing ... will harm an otherwise healthy plant .. that isnt really the issue ... the issue is what SHOULD be done... not what CAN be done ...

ken

e.g. if your plant looks like this.. i dont really think shearing it.. is an option .. in my world.. warped as it may be:

https://www.summerhillnursery.com/plants/PlantInfo.php?PID=11

and if your plant doesnt look like that.. then its moot ... hence the pic request ...

We can offer all types of opinions, but the tree needs to be identified. A picture would help with that identification.

Yes a picture would help settle the matter for this particular 20yo? tree. I just went with the most common solution to correct the stated problem. Shear it.

I have also seen the davidrt28 method produce whole new perfectly formed holly trees though the originals were big, mature, straight and nice and I was disturbed when they cut them down.

Sorry, I thougth the pictures had uploaded. I had to change the format to JPG. The front has almost always looked sort of like this.

The Front

This is the side that the HUGE Birch was crouding. I even has to tape the top back on. I don't think I have any pictures of what it orginally looked like.

The Back

I can not see the leaves so the id is still questionable. If it were my tree I would start at the bottom and trim the lowest branches for about 4 to 5 feet. This will give you access to the area under the tree.

My American Holly has been trimmed so that there are no lower branches and the area under the tree is clear. It is now an acceptable but slow growing tree in our yard. (The tree was there long before the house next door was built, We were told there never would be a house on that lot. The good thing is that I will be long dead before it presents a problem.)

Here in Easter North Carolina you do not have to walk far through a wood before you find a holly tree. Mine was on the edge of our lot and was not cut back when the lot was cleared. I found a picture of the tree when we moved in, and realized I had removed several of the lower branches over the years.

Like GG mentioned, hollies respond very well to shearing and other pruning. How far you go depends on what you're willing to look at next year and what your goals are. Just based on your pictures it looks like an American holly, and it looks like the full side faces the open garden and will always have more growth while the thinner side still receives more shade and will always be thinner.

Shearing will neaten it up, but if you really want to keep it from encroaching on the yard it's something you'll have to repeat every year or two (since shearing will only cut back a couple years growth, which will grow right back... in a couple years...)

If you really want to keep it from encroaching, you'll need to trim branches back by a couple feet (3-4 is not unreasonable) at the end of winter/early spring. If your tree still has good inner growth it shouldn't look bad at all, if not then it will take a season to fill in again.

Here's a link, although I don't know if you want to go this far with it ;)

hard pruning a holly tree

Thanks. I live in Southern New England. So, wait till December or January to trim?

Between November and April will work. In winter is fine if you are not removing so much that it looks chopped and thin all winter. Early spring for a shorter time to new growth filling in from the shearing.

That holly is not in bad shape at all! At least you are dealing with a single trunk. Should start to put on more growth now on the side that was shaded. I would only trim it very lightly.

I agree with David, a light trim…and remove that grapevine.

tj

I agree with David, too. Light trim, and please, please don't remove the lower limbs. These trees can get quite large, but I wouldn't worry about it taking over the yard.

How tall is your ladder? The problem with shearing it, or any serious pruning, is that if you can only reach so far up, anything above that will still be growing au naturel.