Help with Holly bushes

[mike_balt]

Questions here, details below:

what time of year is best to prune them in MAryland?

I had about 17 Holly bushes planted against the front of my house in fall of 06. They are about 3 feet tall, snowball shaped and actually look like a boxwood if you didn't know better. Anyway, in feb of 07 it warmed up and then back to winter. So in spring of 07 we had a variety of damage to the bushes. Some totally fine, some about 80% dead and everything in between. Nursury said they would come back in fall, so no replacement. They didn't. So now, I've got some that are fine, some with 20-60% damage/dead and some worse. The green parts of the bushes have new growth at this time and I'm wondering, when is best to shape them? Is the dead stuff inhibiting growth? should I cut it off?

I'd like to get them all back to get them back to uniform shape and size and I'm wondering what's the best path. The heavily damaged ones have plenty of growing power as they have a ton of growth in the living areas. wondering if I cut the dead off, will they grow faster than the big/uniform ones and catch up. Thought? open to all input. thanks.

[Honeybee Texas]

Do a scratch test with your fingernail on the bark/skin of the outter-most tips, then 1/2" in, then 1" inch, etc. until you find where the branches are still alive. If alive and survivable, when you scratch the thin lining it will be green. As far up as the green is, is as far as will need to be trimmed off to allow new growth to come in. If you can find a happy medium between all of them, you can always trim the healthiest ones back to shape and size of the smallest ones. Timing will be different for all of them to recover.

Another idea is to murder all of them back, like can be done with Crepe Myrtles, grapes and roses. This should be done after fruit (red berries) are ripened and fallen. I'm not sure about Maryland, but here in Texas it is typically late Winter, early Spring for hollies, nandinas, etc.

Try composting also to build that soil health up, and keep a sufficient layer of mulch around them to help regulate your temperatures.