You should be pruning in late winter and you must leave some of last years wood in order to get fruit. If you prune off all of last years wood, you will get nothing. You can tell the difference between one yr and older wood by the color of the bark.

If it is a sucker, I would get rid of it as soos as I see one.

Well, the tree will not prune itself. Have not seen that happen, yet. Photos will help us to determine what might need to be done. I doubt it will be pruning, unless you have a tall, lanky single leader tree form. Most likely, to promote new growth, good potting medium, regular fertilizing and lots of sunshine, outdoors if possible, will be the solution. But, we cannot really tell you without seeing your tree. Patty S.

I agree with Terrene; best to leave them standing until growth begins in spring, and the same goes for most summer-blooming plants. A lot of plants that we grow as perennials are actually sub-shrubs, and they benefit from being left alone until spring. Things like gaura, caryopteris, perovskia, mums, and most herbs, even the little ones like the thymes, all have a much higher survival rate if they're not cut back in fall. I actually cut back all my butterfly bushes this weekend, not because it's good for them but because the ones I have are wickedly prolific self-seeders, and I'm trying to kill them the easy way. It's too bad, too, because they had pretty, silvery, felty leaflets on the branches, and they DID look nice. If I could just keep them dead-headed in summer ... but they get way too tall for that to work here.