Great video! I like how you show how aggressively you pruned the plants earlier and then the amount of regrowth later. Thanks!

Thank you so much for showing how the bushes look after growing back from the pruning!

I have hard pruned a burning bush, smoke tree and smoke bush with great success to rehab these plants. Thanks

@mabee2010, I think this is related to coppicing, cutting off a tree so that re-growth to produce additional firewood will grow very quickly. The root system is intact, so there is tremendous systemic support for the vigorous growth you always get from pruning. I noticed on the burning bush, there were a lot of stub branches left, vastly increasing the number of places regrowth stems could start. And I think Mike also used buds on the branch to place his pruning cuts.

Thanks good info. I was contemplating on the same bushes.

Finally, a video which shows before and after.

u giving me a lot of way to take care of plants and trees , thanks

I am surprised at how hard these are to find, am saving this for sure because I pruned my purple sage and was very worried I went too far

Love it Mike, Thanks.

Thank you Mike :)

What about early spring cutting back, would it kill the bush, or effect the new growth?

I was Sick after cutting a very large Burning Bush this Spring. They are toxic. I felt very weak for 2-3 days, so heads up on toxic plants.

Oh darn. I did this in March (in New England) did I screw this bush up for this year ?

Cutting back the bush, is it something you do every year, to maintain the bush?

Can I trim burning bush and sand cherry bushes down this time of the year (February) we are in Vermont and it will be quite some time before things start growing here. Hope someone will reply to this! Thanks!

Wow I guess it helps to cut bk alot lol. Thanx for showing us how to do it . :n)

i have a bunch of different kinds of bushes..most of which i do not know what they even are because i inherited them when my grandmother passed away. they seem to be pushing on the house too much. think it would be okay to hard-prune everything? they are just getting too big and i'm afraid they will ruin the house

Still trying to get my nerve up to do this!!!!!

great videos mike

Does it happens with a golden pine?

I've got a couple of bushes, we'll I guess they're bushes. They are green but at very top leaves are purple and they're about 5'+ and I want to trim them down about halfway. Is it a good idea to cut'm down to size this time of year?

How about lilac? Can you do the same?

I have a few bushes that were partially killed when a tree fell in our yard. If I pruned that back a lot this fall would that help it to grow back next year?

Fall is the worst time to cut back most plants. Spring and Winter are the ideal times.

Privet to it's a kind of bush.

If a bush is to close to anything I own I tear it out of the ground, and the building looks better and easier to maintain, and varmints love bushes around a house,including the rattlesnake and 2 copperhead I found around my new house, shrubs and bushes have there place but not at my place😎

Dude you look like Serbian man Vojislav Seselj :-)

She do not like Kate who really god gifted queen love you Kate good human being

burning bush is invasive :/

You know what, if a plant is too big for it's spot remove it and replace it with something that is more appropriate. You can't control a plant's size by pruning, unless you pull it up and root-prune too. The size of a plant is in direct relationship to the the size of the root ball. Get it? Unless you want to be tied to a future of harsh pruning and a whole lot of time looking at a butchered pathetic-looking plant do the smart thing and dig it up, put it someplace else where it can do it's thing and look beautiful and replace it with a plant that more suitable for the spot. OK? Work smart, not hard, and enjoy your garden looking good all the time.