How to Prune a Juniper Bush Shrub
- 1). Use a manual hedge trimmer to cut back new growth of the juniper back to old woody growth. New shoots will be fairly soft and flexible and easy to cut. Cutting new growth will rarely harm shrubs, so it can be cut back almost any time of the year.
- 2). Grab the ends of a woody branches and use a pruning shears to cut them back to the desired length. You should try to get off the branch just a ring of pimpled looking skin if possible to facilitate better growth. You should not cut back the woody growth so far that there is no longer any green growth on the plant. You should be able to take off a quarter or third of the plant's length, but the deeper you cut in, the harder it will be for the plant to recover.
- 3). Assess your trim job and use your trimmer and pruning shears to touch up areas that are not uniform in length. You may also want to take down the length of the whole plant a little bit if you decide your initial trimming left the plant too large and bushy.
- 4). Gather the stem and branch cuttings using a rake.
- 5). Place the shrub cuttings in a leaf bag for disposal.