New canes come from base, if you keep cutting off new shoots appearing there you will be preventing plants from replacing old stems. Also, usual problem with non-dwarf nandina is tallest, oldest canes becoming bare at bottom, as well as floppy. With a normal procession of replacement canes coming from bottom plant often well enough furnished for falling of oldest leaves from lower half (or more) of oldest canes to not matter so much. With newest, shortest basal growths kept pruned out there will eventually be nothing to hide bare legs of oldest stems. Your plants may start to look like palm trees.

Almost forgot: I also have 3 nandina domestica (moon bay nandinas) that dont look great. Nandinas when first planted: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/bugman74/CIMG2256.jpg Nandina's 2/2009 (these were never pruned): http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/bugman74/CIMG2957.jpg Nandina's last month: http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee189/bugman74/CIMG3326.jpg The one closes to the water spicket looks OK, the others dropped a lot of leaves, and are still red'ish... Ideas?

I know how to prune nandina. It's the only thing I know how to prune, and it works. I used it on lanky nandina to produce lush nandina. Here's what you do: 1. Prune 1/4 of the stems to the exact height you want the plant. (If you want to keep the height it is now, leave 1/4 of the stems unpruned.) 2. Cut 1/4 of the stalks to 3/4 of the height of the tallest stalks. 3. Cut 1/4 of the talks to 1/2 the height of the tallest. 4. Cut the reamining 1/4 of the stalks to 1/4 the height of the tallest. Make sure you don't cut off all the leaves. Be prepared for it to look awful for months; however, in a year you'll have nicely filled out nandinas, and in 18 months to two years you'll have full bushy nandinas. The other thing you should know is that nandina domestica is on the Georgia invasive species list, so make sure you cut off the blooms every year so they don't develop berries for the birds to spread. I know, I know - berries are the reason to grow them, but...

And here's follow-up from the "other" nandina lover. . . Isabella, even in my slightly warmer Zone 6, the nandinas have always been considered semi-evergreen. . .which would explain ego45's past reference to "skeletons' in the Spring. . .for me, it varies from year to year, but with so much else going on in the Spring garden, it hardly matters. That being said, perhaps siting them properly is the answer in any individual garden. Berry production was excellent again this past season, and a few of them are actually still there - with all the early warm weather, mine are already clothed in fresh new growth. But here's the surprise: I think I've changed my mind about the heavily promoted N. 'Firepower'. . .like everyone else, I was seduced by all those remarkable colorations through-out the growing season, but I've got to tell you, aside from the color, it's a stumpy, fairly ugly little plant. Now, I would readily admit that I may have them "improperly planted", but my 20-year-old "Mother Plant", all her babies, and my three other varieties, all look terrific. It may also be that I prefer relaxed, open shrubs, as opposed to the chunky appearance of the N. 'Firepower'. . .whatever, they're available to anyone at the CT Spring Plant Swap (May 16th) who wants to experiment with them ! Carl