How do I prune holly trees?

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Wintermoor Jesteburg-Wiedenhof, Germany(Zone 8a) Apr 09, 2012

As in the title, can anyone help, please?

We have a few holly trees in our garden (we moved here in June), and some of them look a bit thinly branched. They are about 9 - 11ft tall.

How far back should I prune?

How quickly will they grow back in?

How do I fertilise them?

Anything else you can think of?


Thanks in advance folks ;-)

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ViburnumValley Scott County, KY(Zone 5b) Apr 09, 2012

If you can post some digital images of the plants that you are interested in pruning, it would help immensely those that would offer decent advice.

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Wintermoor Jesteburg-Wiedenhof, Germany(Zone 8a) Apr 10, 2012

OK, Thanks VV, I'll do that as soon as I have time.

Thanks for the advice, I've been away too long methinks. :-)

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gasrocks Portage, WI(Zone 5a) Apr 12, 2012

Isn't Holly one of the plants that they make hedges and ornamental sculpters out of? I.E. they will take lots of prunning well.

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growin Beautiful, BC(Zone 8b) Apr 12, 2012

Yes. My mother, who believes in the 3/4 rule of pruning (hack down to near-nothing), would massacre the holly tree on the side of the house. It took a while to recover but would. I wouldn't recommend that at all but they do recover. It would be better to prune the 1/3 rule and selectively prune to promote bushiness. Around here it is considered a weed and self-seeds freely by way of birds. http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/animalsAndPlants/noxious-weeds/weed-identification/english-holly.aspx
Removing the central growing point of a branch promotes bushiness and removing the central leader will also promote a fuller plant. You could do something interesting with shaping it like the image below.

Thumbnail by growin
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