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Ask a Gardening QuestionGeneral Questions: Introduce yourselves!Pruning Juniper ‘Skyrocket’

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Pruning Juniper ‘Skyrocket’

#1 · 16th November 2024, 11:27 am

I have a very mature Juniper Skyrocket that has now grown so it is obscuring my view from my upstairs window, and it’s still growing. It has grown taller and much quicker than I thought it would. Is there any way I can lower the top of the tree by 50cm to a metre without completely ruining it? I don’t really want to remove it as lots of birds use it and eat the insects on it.

#2 · 20th November 2024, 2:26 pm

Hi @74turnip

Thanks for your question about pruning conifers; I've answered on other types of conifer pruning in this post here, but the Juniper Sky rocket is slightly different!

The problem you have with all trees, and in particular, conifers, is that once you top the tree out by cutting out its main leader, the hormones and energy usually get pushed further down the tree, which causes them to bush. For deciduous trees and shrubs, this is how we thicken hedges and create nice, round, relaxed forms rather than thin, straggly plants.

However, with conifers, they have really strong apical growth, top growth. So when you cut that out, they tend not to bush but just stop growing; great, you may think, but on larger forms of conifer, it leaves a gap at the top so that you've always got this bare open top.

With your Juniper, you should be fine if you carefully remove the lead stem just below some side growth to hide this void. So the answer is yes, you can top the tree out, but do take your time and cut just below some adequate side growth so you can keep the overall form of the tree.

Lastly, thanks for considering wildlife in your decision. You're one of the gardening good guys, obviously!