Can I cut this back a lot?

[Bemyclementine]

No idea what it us. Smells lovely, but getting too tall, it sends long shoots straight up. I'd like to cut it back quite a bit. Will it survive?

Another pic

Yes, I’d take it down to around the height of the wall

Fabulous thanks, do you know what it is? And can I do it now?

I wouldn't cut it back until there is no more risk of frost.

It looks like a viburnum - probably Dawn. Tough things, it will look best if you take growth out right down to the base - not the whole lot, RHS says 1 in 5, I’d happily do ⅓ - this will encourage new growth from the base. If you take out that many every year it will keep it tamed to a degree.

You can cut it down to the height of the wall, but it’s likely to resprout from where you cut it and that could spoil the shape.

www.rhsplants.co.uk/plants/_/viburnum--bodnantense-dawn/classid.4489/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAofieBhDXARIsAHTTldo1qqjlqJ9c3iFPU1xynJ68zMJWAuF6QYZxqmCvCk93u-7irb9AnVAaAup8EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Strictly speaking you shouldn't cut down anything mid flower.

I believe that is a Viburnum x bodnantense. I'd take out 1/3 of the stems, picking the older ones, each year until it has all rejuvenated. Or I'd cut the whole lot down to the ground after lowering. It looks very congested at the base.

Agree with others, it would be a pity to cut it back now, when it is in the middle of flowering.

Thanks all, I've looked it up and it is definitely Viburnham Dawn. I'll leave it til it's finished flowering.

I used to have one of these. It doesn’t care what you do to it, it grows like stink!
I’m not good at shaping and it always ended up a lanky mess, but you don’t need to worry about killing it.
The flowers do smell lovely and it’s great to have something out in midwinter, but they never fall off so you end up with lots of little brown dead things.

Haha yes I recently saw one cut down to about 2ft of woody growth, which inspired me to ask the question.

This is what mine looked like in its final incarnation - I’d cut it back very hard the previous autumn (anticipating it being chucked out in some landscaping work, which didn’t then happen for another year) and this was early March - the only flowers are on wispy bits I’d missed, but it is already beginning to sprout from all the stumps.
The sideways pic is from late April! (I don’t seem to have one from the front)

Rather than chopping it back to 2ft, I would take out a few (not more than a third) of the older stems right to the base.

If you just chop the whole thing, you’ll get lots of soft non flowering twigs.