Gardening Questions and Answers

A new gardening question of the day appears every day of the year on the front page of Almanac.com. Below is the answer to one of the questions from our Gardening Questions and Answers Archive where you can find over 400 more gardening questions (with answers!).

In late winter/early spring, I am going to prune a large burning bush. I want to prune it to about half its size. Is that too much?

You don't say what type of burning bush you own, but the most common variety is 'Compactus', which is a silly name for a plant that can grow ten feet tall. In fact, unless you have a dwarf version of the shrub, such as 'Nordine Strain' or 'Rudy Haag', you're going to end up with a pretty big plant. We didn't find any information on whether such excessive pruning will harm the plant, but since it sounds as if you want a smaller shrub anyway, go ahead and try it. If the plant dies, you can replace it with one of the smaller versions.