I can't answer the question because I don't know what temperatures are likely to be for you.

However, I'd like to take the question back a step and ask why you want to prune these particular shrubs. None of them actually needs it for their health. If they are too big then they may be badly sited. If they have damaged or dead bits then they can be cut out. But routine pruning is not necessary. There should be a plant health or aesthetic reason for every cut.

If you cut now they will look cut until new growth covers the cuts next summer. This is why early summer is the optimum time, the cuts will become obscured as quickly as possible.

if you cut the buds off the rhodie... dont expect bloom next spring

and i have no idea why you would prune the cypress or the spruce ...

and i sure hope you dont mean.. getting out the electric shears.. and giving them a haircut ???? .. which is not really pruning ....

location ... and how about a pic or two ...

no clue on holly ...

just wondering why your plant sitings.. make this such an annual labor intensive job???

ken

I agree that the spruce and the cypress do not need to be pruned, but... you will not have any more growth in spring than you have right now. They won't be growing anymore until after bud break next spring so, if you must prune, do it in March or early April.

tj

Hi and thanks to all who replied. I'm a bit surprised as to why you would ask me why I choose to prune. I can't recall having any shrubbery - at least close to the house and next to a paved walkway as the ones are that I refer to - that I do NOT prune annually. Otherwise these things will just outgrow their space. The gold thread cypress, as you know, will develop into a plant of considerable girth if I let it. It is directly aside of a walkway, and so needs to be cut back. True that maybe it is in the wrong place but it took years to get to the point where if I don't prune it the branches really stick out into the area where you walk. And, the spruces, while I don't do much heavy pruning on those (you really can't without cutting down to the point where there is no growth at all), I just think they look better if they are shaped up a bit each year. Also, I put Christmas lights on them and so if I just let them grow without any pruning, they will take more and more lights! I fully realize about the PJM rhode and so probably would not do any cutting on those at all. They stay pretty manageable size-wise. And...yes...I DO mean using a hedge trimmer on the cypress!! (sorry!) The landscaper who put them in for me made a big point of telling me how you want to just grab by hand and cut, grab and cut, then stand back and look at it for balance, etc. I did that for awhile and then thought.....ya know what? This takes WAY too long. So now I go at them the quick way and they look fine each year. As to each cut being either necessary for health or aesthetics...sorry....but restricting the annual growth to a point that I don't consider as being 'looking overgrown for its space' wins out. I DO trim and then stand back and look to make sure that I'm cutting evenly all around.

ALL THAT being said, I greatly appreciate the comments. Indeed, as was stated..the cuts I would make now will be there and probably not look right until new growth comes in. I'll probably let it go at this point. I usually do it in August or early September...never early summer (too hot)...probably better for the plant, but not for me...hate working out in the heat and humidity!

Thanks again to all!! I'll send pics later when I get a chance.

Oh well...I appreciate the thoughts, but it works for me. I still like the plants that are there but need to keep them trimmed so they don't outgrow the space. Ultimately it's a losing battle since obviously I can never cut back the equivalent of a year's worth of growth on an annual basis, so they continue to get bigger each year anyway and, as you say, will need to be replaced with something that fits the space - or the same plant only a much smaller, less mature one.

What about in the case of a forsythia or bridal wreath hedge, though? I have both, and these absolutely need heavy pruning EVERY year, or otherwise they would grow to 10+ feet or more. For me, the aesthetic aspects or health of the plant does not come first. You can cut that forsythia down to the ground and it is not offended in any way. Within two years, it'll be right back up to what it was! I recently had professionals over to prune my maple tree, and they also approached me with the same "it looks good as it is and is healthy so why harm the tree with unnecessary cutting" approach. I went along with it and of course they significantly reduced the original estimate. I would have liked them to use a bucket truck, go all the way around the maple and really prune it back hard, which is what I thought I was going to be paying for, but instead I had to hear that 'every cut is a wound'...etc. So, it turned out alright but I did tell them that if they don't do it, I'll have to get at it myself anyway. I overheard them calling the boss and telling them that "this guy will wind up destroying his own tree" or something to that effect. So then they went around with a hand clipper and took off some more. I live close to Longwood Gardens...probably one of the premier gardens to be found anywhere, and I've often seen their staff gardeners out doing heavy pruning of various shrubs, etc. So the philosophy of...let the plant grow to it's normal mature height or else put in something else that does not get as big for the designated space...is somehow lost on me. I understand the concept, but would prefer to keep the plantings I have (unless I no longer like them) and just prune at will. Probably to a trained eye I guess I'm committing the ultimate crime against the plant, but that's ok too. It sure doesn't stop these bushes from growing anyway!

I understand what OP is saying. I have a Gold Cypress and I cut mine every Spring. It has nothing to do with being planted in the wrong spot, or does not have enough room I have acres of land. Visual IMO is if left to grow at will it looks like Cousin Itt from the Adam's Family.

Maybe it is a PA thing we are a puritan conservative people.

The other thing I see PA people do, that I will not do is cut all the lower limbs off of mature evergreen trees and make them look like a giant umbrella with the naked limb holding up the top of the evergreen 20' tree. To add to the ugly they get yards and yards of red dyed mulch. Sorry if someone likes that stuff but when I see it and it makes me sick.

"Visual IMO is if left to grow at will it looks like Cousin Itt from the Adam's Family."

LOL!! That's what it's supposed to look like. Catalog descriptions for this plant usually run to something like this: 'A ground hugging mound that is truly mop-like, with stringy leaves that color best in full sun. The graceful mounding habit creates a waterfall-like effect.' Another site offers: 'It requires very little pruning and heavy pruning can ruin its unique
appearance. Only prune to remove dead, broken or poorly formed branches.' Are you trying to make it into something else?

"Maybe it is a PA thing we are a puritan conservative people."

That's a rather broad statement and seems to be overly generalized. Since PA is considered a very strongly blue state, that would seem to contradict this contention.Just saying......... :-)

LOL! It is probably best to leave political observations out of the discussion, being that we're only really talking about pruning bushes here. I'm not sure how far you can take that. There may be extreme left-wing people out there who prune their plants much harder than I am inclined to!!

Its counter-intuitive but all I will say is growth follows the knife - in other words, the more you cut, the more it grows. Still, your choice.

You're right...but it probably grows less on an annual basis without the knife than with. I appreciate the thought.

I was using the small letter "c" vs the capital letter "C" conservative description of style of what I had observed.

Small
letter "c" being this type of conservative........<b>"marked by or relating
to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manner."</b> Nothing
political in that meaning of what I was trying to express.

LOL Gardengal I like the description of what the bush is suppose to look like but after having the bush for 8 yrs it will not grow as described without help from me and my clippers. I should have said Cousin it on drugs.

It grows crazy first I had this. You can see how it was growing sticking out in stupid directions?

I trimmed the lower crazy side to the right f the pic. Now it has the shape of this pic. But every year I have to clip and shape or it will not flow down. This pic is why I said I understood what the OP was referring to. It has a tendency to throw out some arms.

Marquest...thanks for sharing pics of your cypress. Yes...they can indeed "throw out some arms"...I've seen some that are downright monstrous in size where the "arms" are of huge octopus proportions. As I said early on, one of mine is right next to a walkway. So in homage to those who replied suggesting that I probably did not choose the right spot for the right plant, I guess that's true in sense, and yet, by keeping it at bay, I've gotten to enjoy the cypress where it is for probably the last 15 years or more. Eventually it'll have to go since you can only cut so far without it starting to look really stubby, but without the annual sacrilegious axing or slashing or whatever actually defines what I do (I guess the sacrilege part is relative to using the electric hedge trimmer!), it would probably already no longer be here.

Thanks for all who responded...I think I'm done with this thread now, although I'm still undecided as to still doing some cutting, which was the purpose of the initial inquiry. With the extraordinarily strong El Nino we've got going on right now, I still have chrysanthemums and Russian sage growing out there...quite a contrast with getting ready to put out Christmas lights. Somehow, with this springtime in November scenario we've got going (my neighbor was actually out mowing his lawn yesterday...something I still have to do also), it still feels like it's not too late to get out the trimmer. And if I do so, I'll try to exercise restraint and cut in a conservative manner consistent with the implications of the lowercase 'c'.... :)

LOL use that lowercase "c". I agree we are very warm and you probably will not have any problems. Then this Spring you will have a nice looking bush by early spring.

Enjoy your bushes. You have to do what you think makes your gardens appealing to you. Books of what is right and wrong cannot help when the plants do not have the ability to read and they decide to do what they would like to do, Cousin Itt has to be trimmed I do not care what a book says.

Marquest...LOL....agree totally!

Those plants are pretty hardy, I'm sure trimming them now would be no problem. Something like boxwood I would wait on, I've had these burn from a late trimming (no it wasn't sun scald or wind burn, it was burned foliage around the cuts).

So trim away with your shears to your heart's content, we're not raising children here, and for the record I've got both cousin It and clippered shrubs in my PA garden.