I have the feeling that a lot of pruning advice is for mature bushes. This is my first year to prune, and I have some bushes that I'm not pruning at all, which is fine since we are about to get the coldest night of this winter. I'd like my plants to get larger, so I'm thinking very light pruning to encourage larger bushes. I think I've watched every pruning video I can find and don't have a clear answer.

Oh no! I hope my squirrels don't go crazy on mine! I have one squirrels who has only one eye. He seems to be the only one that hangs out around my apartment. He feasts on the huge Chiquapin oak acorns in the fall, so I hope he doesn't start eyeing my peas. He hasn't bothered anything in the garden yet, not even the Everglades tomatoes. I should think about putting food out for him so he doesn't get into my stuff. The previous owner used to feed him inside the courtyard, and when I first moved in, he would come in all the time looking for food, but I try not to feed the wildlife. He has plenty of buried acorns around to munch on right now. I see him digging them up. I don't want the Muscovy ducks around, though. There is a section right next to my apartment that evidently has a lot of grubs and bugs, because the ducks hang out there a lot pecking the ground. If I put a feeder out, they will be there to pick up what gets dropped, and I don't want them pooping all over my yard. I'll see what happens. Maybe I can plant him his own little pigeon pea bush over by his tree.

Probably time and pruning will give you the look you want. Should be nice in a few months to see how much more green growth it puts out. I use the generic citrus fertilizer you find at lowes/homedepot. time release. Could fertilize now and let it grow out all summer long bruh! Nice tree

Illstep - thank you for the link. Embothrium, thank you, I was thinking I'd thinned it out quite a bit as well. I don't think I am going to be unhappy wtih the amount of bloom this year, but we'll see. Yes, I realize it is a large fountain shape naturally. That's fine with me. Unfortunately, it was originally planted too close to a walkway and it's natural shape completely makes that walkway unable to be used. It came with the house over 40 years ago and probably has been planted there 60 years. It's also fragrant, which I'm not sure is common with these shrubs today. Illstep mentioned that I can cut dead branches at any time, and I was thinking maybe what I'll do is just clean all the leaves out of the base if I can get in there and cut out the dead stumps and leave it at that for now. It is mulched with bark mulch and we just added another couple of inches of cocoa shells. I didn't realize that mulching might promote new canes. Any particular mulch or thickness? I never fertilize it, would that help? Is there an organic fertilizer I can try? I use Planttone sometimes. Or I could add a ring of compost around the base, maybe with some alfalfa meal. Alfalfa meal always gives a real boost to my roses.