Yes, it's very easy, but you'll need to provide an image. As a bonsai practitioner, a regular part of how we make trees look very old is by inducing rapid taper in the trunk - very fat at the bottom, very thin on the top. Heavy branches low on the tree, twiggy growth at the top - just as you see in nature, only condensed. It's not unusual for me to dig up a tree which is 10 or more feet tall, immediately after shortening the tree to something like 4-6 inches in ht. At least 90% of my trees have had the 'trunk chop' procedure done multiple times. Examples: This ficus microcarpa ^^^ was chopped severely 3 times. You can barely see one major scar low on the right side of the tree. There's another between the leader and left branch, and another on the top of the right branch just to the right of the thinner part of the trunk. This tree ^^^ (having just been pruned hard in the image) has been chopped hard 5 times. In both cases, the chops are strategically planned so the scars aren't visible when observing the tree from its front, 'front' being it's best or most eye-appealing side. This ^^^ is the first (and second) chop on a maple (tree in middle - in black nursery can - big white scare. The branch with the wire is the new trunkline and the right fork (fatter side) of the trunk will eventually be cut off. It's purpose until that time is to add thickness to the thin part of the trunk. Same tree after several chops - notice the taper. The scars will heal. Same tree - still progressing. It has about 2 more years of growth and training before it gets a quality bonsai pot. This is last year's image, and it's made good progress this year. I hope you enjoyed that and were/are left with the sense it won't be too difficult to fix whatever you did to/for your tree. Trees are very predictable, so much so that we can plan ahead to utilize branches that don't yet exist, because we know at some point 'they will'. Ready when you are. Al

I live in Florida and ours grow year around, too. I cut mine back whenever they look crappy or when I can pawn the cuttings off on someone - no certain time, except when they are forming buds, which is right now. When Nov. gets here and they aren't likely to bloom again until March or May, I will whack them down to about a foot above the ground. Wherever you cut them, two branches will form. I think you can do it whenever it suits you.

Roses are traditionally pruned in early spring.......when the forsythia is blooming. And it will not hurt to prune them hard. As far back as you like :-) I once cut a big, rangy rambler/climber back almost to ground level and it was full and lush and nearly back to the same size by the end of the season. Whether or not a hard prune will stimulate budding from lower on the canes is a bit of a toss up. Old, very gnarly grayish woody canes are unlikely to produce low buds....younger canes might. This is pretty typical for many large growing roses - they tend to have 'bare legs'. If you routinely fertilize your roses with an alfalfa product, you are very likely to get new stem growth from the base - what is known as basal breaking. This is often the best way to rejuvenate old leggy plants as once these new canes begin to mature and produce, you can remove the older, bare ones.

should I just leave them alone and grow natural? ==>>> imo.. yes .. a pic or two might help us see if there is apparently anything wrong ... i dont know if you watering protocol is sufficient..because it dont know your soil ... without the pic.. i am torn about whether you should reduce to one leader ... if you goal at planting was a sight block.. multiple leaders wouldnt necessarily be bad ... ken