Question
Mr. Hyland, I read the response from Rick Hern about trimming a mugo pine. Looking awkward is not my problem. I live in Albuquerque, NM, zone 7,
and have 2 mugo pines that reside 3 feet from one another, a sidewalk separates them. The pine on the north side of the sidealk is growing by leaps and bounds. It has grown between 1 1/2 to 2 feet in the past 3 years. Not all of that has been vertical. It is spreading horizontally and starting to block the sidwalk.
So my question: how best to prune the tree/bush. It's neigbhor across the sidewalk is very well behaved and is not growing at the rate it's kin is. I realize that there are different varities of the mugo pine and that's probably what I have here. I don't want to take it out (don't even think there's enough wood for a decent fire) but would like to tame it.
Do you have any suggestions as to how to prune it?
I know it won't be embarrassed and neither will we if a radical pruning is needed. So what's the best way to approach this beast?
Thanks for your time,
Rich Longbotham

Answer
The best way is to pluck off the new growth, when it first comes out. This will slow its growth way down. of course this takes a while by hand, so it may be best to use a hedge sheer on the new growth. It may be to late this year, so you may just need to go in and cut it down a bit branch by branch now. DO NOT go to far in, they won't re leaf (needle) on the inside, so if you cut to where there are no needles, you won't get any back.

Achieving the size you want may be difficult. If you shorten the limbs by half it is likely that no dormant buds will be left on the remaining stub. Therefore no new growth will result and the limb will die. If you are lucky, you can shorten the longest limbs back to existing interior limbs which have needles on them now. Those limbs should be left alone for this season.

Next year, assuming the pine is the size you like, clip off the tip of the "candle (green center growth) on each limb once it is an inch long. This will thicken the foliage and keep the pine small.

In a drastic situation, evergreen trees' central leaders can be pruned to reduce height. Prune as little as possible. Prune back to a lateral whorl that is actively growing and well-needled. Older tissue of these trees does not have living buds.