Wow Anne — those trees do sound huge! But I bet they are beautiful too! Ours have grown quite a bit, and I need to prune them, however I have to wait for the robins to stop making nests in them first! (They return every year before I get a chance to prune the trees!)

Glad I could answer your questions with my article, April! I went out and measured mine, and they are approximately 4.5 to 5 feet apart, each one. It was more or less dictated by where the pergola pillars had been cemented around the patio, but I think it worked out nicely as each has plenty of room. They grow upright and then out almost in a rounded vase shape, so as they get taller, they will have more room. They also take to pruning and trimming back VERY well. Mine are “sort of” in full sun, as in one side gets full sun while the other is more dappled sun. I think your sun/dappled sun ratio sounds fine. Let me know how they do!

Hi Shirley, Thanks for your question. My advice is what I would do myself: contact a tree expert to take a look at the photinia in question, especially if these are planted near each other. If there is a fungus, you don’t want that to spread to the other trees. Tree experts are great for knowing exactly what to do in your specific region of the country. They can also advise on treatment and what to do going forward. I’m sorry I can’t advise you on specific things you can do on your own, but this sounds like a case for an expert. Let me know what you find out.

Hi Roman — Yes, you can definitely begin shaping your photinias into a more traditional tree-like form. (I have ours as trees, but I’ve kept all of the lower branches because I love the privacy it provides where they are located on our patio.) Because yours are just 3 feet tall, I wouldn’t do too much removing of branches too quickly. However, the good thing is photinias recover from pruning fairly quickly. I’m unsure how many stems coming up out of the ground your photinias currently have. You can keep this as a multi-stem tree, which is a really nice look and healthier for the plant. Begin by removing the lowest stems that are coming out of the main trunk stems. Also remove any little leaves that are growing directly out of the main trunk stems. Go slowly, and step back frequently to look at the shape and how the trees look. You want to use pruners or loppers, and cut the stems as close to the original main trunk stem as possible. Make the cuts at a 45-degree angle.

I will work on a longer blog post about pruning, but in the meantime I hope these tips help you get started. Let me know how it goes!

Hi Janie,
I’ve seen Red Tip Photinia grown as a tree with both multiple trunks as well as a single trunk. When we originally had a Red Tip Photinia in the front of our house — the one I mentioned that grew WAY to fast and was planted WAY too close to the house — I was growing that as a multi-trunk tree form. I’ve never tried to grow them with just a single trunk — however — I did a Google image search for “red tip photinia tree form” (without the quotes) and found many great examples of these trees grown as both multi-trunk and single-trunk trees.

In answer to your specific question about pruning the bottom limbs, yes my best guess is that you will have to choose which of the upright limbs — of which I assume there are a few coming out of the pot — that you want to be the main trunk. Preferably an upright one, as if it is leaning in any way left or right, you might have a difficult time training the trunk to grow straight up. That’s what I’d do: choose the best upright (vertical) limb and prune back the rest IF I was going to choose to have a single-trunk tree. Personally I like the look of multi-trunk trees. Red Tip Photinias DO respond well after pruning, so if you decide down the road that you want more than one trunk…say next year or so…just let a couple of the new shoots from the base continue to grow.

I hope this helps? I’d love to hear how it goes.