We rent and in our front garden we have inherited a largish cotinus. The 'guts' of the tree are 2- 2.5m tall but the shoots which are long, thin and whippy extend a further 2m apiece with, right now, big fluffy seed heads on them. Previous pruning seems to have almost 'pollarded' the tree. I've already had to prune back those shoots overhanging the footpath as the weight of the leaves and fluff balls caused the branches to bend into walkers' faces! The question is, I know you're supposed to prune cotinus back to '2-3 buds' in early spring (which evidently didn't happen here!) but can I do a serious prune on it now? Or do I have to wait until next early spring?