come on mooney.. leave the first babe alone for about 10 years.. it will be fine..

NOBODY cuts off parts of a babe plant under the presumption that it will force more growth...

if anything.. you ought to move it further from the fence.. every leaf is an an energy producing machine.. cutting them off of babes.. will only stunt oit ... not force it to grow faster.. it isnt a maple... lol

i would leave the holly alone also ... if you cant verbalize a reason to prune.. then you dont prune ...

imo.. the only issue about pruning is whether the plants are bleeders ...

ken

Once again, ken's advice is completely off piste!! Pruning does in fact simulate new growth........every qualified pruning website (as well as practical firsthand experience) will tell you that.

But timing is critical. With conifers, while the plant is still dormant - late winter - or just as it starts to push new growth is ideal. If you wait later in the season, the plant's response is not as strong.

Ken, I’d be happy to leave the baby Taxus alone. And will consider moving it away from the fence a little more, now while it is small and easier to move. It’s just a question of making the room.

As for the hollies. I have the same holly in my front foundation and it quickly became a monster. Very vigorous grower, so I think it is the 'Blue Stallion'. Needs pruning often. Which I don’t mind. It screens a front window from the street, so it’s doing it’s job. So I have a comparison of what this holly is capable of with more sun. It faces east.

I bought four Hollies - ‘Blue Prince and Princess’ and ‘Blue Maid and Stallion’ I’ve lost track of which is which. I know the one in my front foundation is a male that doesn’t produce berries. I have one that is growing the way I want it too in a corner where it has a good display of berries every year. I think that one is ‘Princess’ Oddly, that is fairly close to another mature Maple tree and is in a lot of shade, yet it has grown much larger and denser. These other two no berries and much less vigorous and dense.

I’d be happy if both of these Hollies grew taller than the fence and would be a dense screen. The descriptions of these varieties are…

‘Blue Maid’ Fast growing 8-10ft tall, 6-8ft wide

‘Blue Prince’ Slow Growing 6-8ft tall, 3-6ft wide

‘Blue Princess’ Moderate growing 8-10ft, 6-8ft

‘Blue Stallion’ 8-12ft tall, 8-10ft wide.

I found these examples on line of what they could look like…

'Blue Stallion'

'Blue Prince'

Garden Gal - You are in z8/9 vs my z6. So I'd think our timing would be a little different. Is a holly considered a conifer?

" Is a holly considered a conifer? "

No. If evergreen - most hollies are - the the best timing for pruning is less critical but again, late winter or as the shrub is just coming out of dormancy is most advantageous. And that timing is really regardless of growing zone.

Conifer - a plant that bears cones and needle-like or scale-like leaves that are typically evergreen.

Is a holly considered a broadleaf evergreen, like a Rhododendron? And are they actually dormant? I thought my holly out front didn't really start pushing out new growth until it had bloomed and I'd pruned it. Most years, I've waited until after it bloomed to prune it and then felt I should have pruned it before it bloomed, because I would be cutting off potential berries if I waited and I am removing blooms that the bees are eagerly looking for them in early spring.

Bengz - I have been pruning my shrubs for at least 20 yaars. I enjoy doing it. I do an adequate job most of the time. I did hire someone once to do general gardening and they weren't very good at a number of jobs I asked them to do, but I kept trying them on different tasks. When I asked them to prune, I was so surprised how instinctively good they were, that I focused all the work they did for me in the pruning department.

I still have two very large Taxus, that they pruned that I have barely touched in years because I loved the outcome and they continue growing the way I want them to. They were entirely inexperienced and therefore inexpensive. They aren't available any more, unfortunately. I had hired a professional once specifically to do pruning and I had to stop them after a couple of attempts they were so bad. Some people just seem to have a natural gift.

I have a small lot with a lot of mature trees around it and I'm trying to grow a lot of plants, so inevitably I have some areas where it's difficult to grow anything well. Between the shade and the tree roots, it's pretty noticeable that the conditions are not great.

If you look at the internet photos I posted, that is what I was expecting to end up with when I bought these shrubs. And then compare those to the photos of my actual shrubs and I'm sure you can see that I would be disappointed with that outcome. So I may not ever end up with the ideal result, but I am hoping to try to improve them as much as I can. My usual, basic pruning skills seem to need an upgrade to figure out how to produce that improvement. But now that I think about it, I've only pruned the Holly that doesn't grow at all, once since I planted it and the other one I more or less left it on it's own to grow as well. So, maybe my usual efforts will give me better results than I thought.

I did find a couple of YouTube videos that show moving and pruning a holly at the same time. So the Holly that has been barely growing, I am going to move in the spring and just use my basic pruning and see what I end up with. It'll be a good experiment. Thanks

Mind the pruning a bit; prune too deeply and they tend to not resprout (moving down too far too close to the branch) on some plants. I have, regrettably, first-hand experience on that one. Nor does pruning the top of most shrubs end well in terms of shape.

Overpruning will also remove too much greenery and give you too little to grow on.

But, as noted, there are tons of great videos online. Just be sure to use clean clippers and disinfect between cuts. Again, first-hand experience on that issue!