What a glorious mature garden! I don’t really know what you mean by a ‘candled’ pine tree, but then I am not a conifer expert. I only know ‘candle’ to refer to the new pine growth and that is not achieved by pruning. It is natural. Do you mean the practice of shortening the candles to slow pine growth? Pines and Pieris grow very differently and react differently to pruning.

Your Pieris has grown leaning in that fashion due to the huge trees behind it. It is reaching for the light and always will while the trees are there. (They are magnificent btw.) You could embrace the shape which is kind of Japanese-looking, removing the lopped off stumpy branches to clean up the trunks. Or you could cut the Pieris back to stumps and let it shoot from the base and grow more compact. The colourful leaves are only on fresh new growth so the latter method will give you lots.

whats the landscape design issue that you posted in that forum.. or the design forum .... you will get better ideas.. if you add better forums....

seems you would be further ahead posting in the tree or shrub forums.. where peeps who actually own the plant might be ... or peeps who actually own a saw or secateurs .. and use them..

pines are candled to restrict annual growth.. timing is very important so that the pine will set buds for the next year..

i dont think that concept has any application on flowering shrubs ... which are usually hand pruned or sheared.. again at the proper time.. usually just after blooming ...

pruning becomes rather easy.. when you can verbally state a goal.. and then it pretty simple to accomplish it.. with a hand saw.. pruners.. or shears ... as of this post.. you sate no goal ....

ken

I think candling is a full time pruning issue . My advice get an expert arborist to advice the best way to handle the pieris to me the flowers are so pretty I just enjoy those and keep shaping and pruning to a min.

I wonder if by "candling" the OP really means something like cloud pruning or Niwaki. As others have stated, candling is a term typically used in reference to conifers, specifically pines. A broadleaved evergreen - like the pieris - has nothing to candle!

OTOH, the shrub could easily be cloud pruned, which could indeed accent the shrub's current growth habit although I am not sure it would do anything to encourage new colorful growth. That is a seasonal response that is also influenced by the amount of sun the shrub receives. In a heavily treed and shaded garden such as the OP's, that new growth coloration may or may not be very intense.

Like its cousins rhododendrons and azaleas, pieris have adventitious buds under the bark up and down the stems that will respond with new growth if the shrub is pruned back hard. But given the nature of the shade present and the shrub's location, any regrowth will likely have the same reaching for light, leaning habit. And any regrowth is very slow with these shrubs.

I would guess that the OP is located in the PNW, given the large western red cedars visible in the photos. These often massive trees are dead common here in more rural or larger properties and although gorgeous, not the easiest trees to garden with. The shade they create is often dense and usually quite dry.

This Pieris doesn’t need an arborist. It can be easily dealt with as outlined above. OP’s choice.

" I think candling is a full time pruning issue "

Pretty clear that the writer of this statement has no idea what candling is! 😜

And I can't think of when calling in an arborist to trim back a shrub is at all relevant.

Being able to tag the landscaping forums with the Design Dilemmas board is one of the worst features of Houzz.

Sadly, she has a pro label, so naive people will assume she knows what she’s talking about.