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Oklahoma Gardening

Photina shrubs - cutting back

16 years ago

Hello. I haven't posted here before but have been reading for a while. I hope someone can answer a question for me. I have a row of 7 photina shrubs that have grown rather large, about 6 feet high. They're about 14 years old. They are along the front of my house which is facing north. I would like to cut them back to about half their size. Can these shrubs be cut back this much? Will they recover? When would be the best time to do this? Can I do it now, wait till later in the fall or next spring? Thanks.

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Comments (3)

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
Hi Patty,

You can cut back red tip photinia any time in the spring or summer months if the photinias are healthy and are not showing any signs of disease prior to being pruned. They should bounce right back from the pruning.

However, I think you need to consider whether the red tip photinias are the right shrub in the right place for you. Most red tip photinias easily reach a mature height of 10' to 12' tall and some will get to 15' tall if they are growing in ideal conditions. If they are 6' tall now and you want to prune them back to 3', you should know that they will regrow very quickly and will be back to 6' in just a few months.

If it is your intention to permanently maintain the red tip photinias at 3' to 6', you will have to prune them a couple of times a year and perhaps more often. Pruning plants this often will eventually give you shrubs with huge stubby branches that won't look all that great as time goes on.

So, if you are really wanting a shrub that you can keep at 3' to 6' with little maintenance, why not remove the redtip photinias and replace them with a plant whose mature height is more in line with what you want?

We planted red tip photinias at our previous house in 1984 or 1985. They are now in the 15' to 18' height range and it would be impossible to prune them to 3' or even 6' and keep them looking good.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Dawn
pattyl
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks Dawn. Your comments are helpful. I do prune them a little every a year, but never that severly.
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Okiedawn OK Zone 7
16 years ago
Patty,

I love Red Tip Photinias when they are planted in the right location. However, when planted too close to the house or too close to one another.....they can become a big nightmare!

Down in Texas they have really bad foliar problems, and also are very susceptible to cotton root rot. Here in Oklahoma, though, they don't seem to have the foliage problems as much.

Before we moved from our Fort Worth house to Oklahoma, I had pruned ours up into a tree form and they looked really great. The people who own the house now have let them revert to shrub form, and the photinias are about to swallow up the driveway ten years later.

Dawn

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