Sweetspire Pruning

Question

In January our gardener cut all of our beautiful, but overgrown, Sweetspire (Itea virginica) shrubs almost to the ground.  Five to ten inches is all that remains. Spring is here and everything else in the yard is starting to come to life, but I’m still not seeing any new growth on these shrubs! Will they be able to recover, or was this too drastic of a pruning? They were absolutely gorgeous and I’m just sick over this.

Answer 1

It should not have been too drastic. This is a form of pruning called rejuvenation. I would give it another few weeks. You will see shoots come up from the base.