My boxwoods are very uneven due to new growth, is it too late in the season to prune them now? I'm in South Carolina. Also, I've got some crepe myrtles that I've had planted for about a year now. They've grown a couple of feet since I planted them, and are about 12 feet tall. They have a single "trunk" that goes about 2-3 feet above the ground and then that splits into a couple of smaller trunks that go up the rest of the height of the tree. I don't want to necessarily prune it, as in shorten it by cutting the top of the tree and thus making it shorter (unless I'm supposed to), I really just want to cut some small branches that have grown out sideways towards the bottom at the single trunk part. Thanks!
I prune my boxwood (box) hedge whenever I have time to do it. I let it go too long and now it needs to be cut back drastically. It doesn't seem to matter when the pruning is done, at least here in the northwest part of the continent. Fall should be a good time to prune, unless it's too dry for new growth. I don't know anything about crepe myrtles, but I can't imagine that pruning small branches would be a problem.
I agree that boxwood can be pruned just about anytime, and I think it's best to prune while the plant is in a non-dormant stage so that it can seal off the tissues shorn by clippers. For the crape myrtle, I'd wait until the plant has lost its leaves. That way you won't be depriving it of any of the energy that will be stored for winter in the roots. It's also sometimes easier to see clearly the structure of the tree in its "bare bones" state, so you can decide exactly which branches to lop off.
Maybe it depends on how much you want to remove. Uneven foliage can be nicer to look at than smooth bare stems. Unless you leave some leaves where you prune away length of stems.
Since crape myrtle is deciduous, pruning in late winter is better. What will happen if you radically prune now is a spurt of growth that will die off in your first heavy frost. If you are pruning it for shape, but leaving a lot of the summer's growth, then have at it. Mine are still blooming in Daytona.
