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Originally Posted by TexasTycoon
Our future home has huge overgrown red-tipped photinia lining the back fence... I want to try to prune them into a more tree-like shape,
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A photinia will have a tree-like shape if it grows alone on a lawn at a nice distance from another tree. I suppose you would like to have a more tidy hedge. As it has never been trimmed for years a serious work has to be done with a chainswaw, top and sides to give it the shape of a decent hedge. Choose the right height : the higher it is the more private your place will be but the more difficult your job will be to trim the top later.
The first year it will be perfectly ugly with its skeleton of branches but new shootings will soon come and one year later it will start to look nice. I trim my hedge in November but I suggest you check the right period, just google "photinia" and you will have plenty of answers.