[mrs bouquet]

We bought one of these a few years ago.  The trunk is about half a hands width round, and about 6 feet high
The crown  is about another 4ft.  It leans at a 60 degree angle, and the leaves make a terrible mess.   It is swaying away and I am surprised it didn't uproot last night.

My question is, if I cut the crown off completely will it start again from the top of trunk.   If I cut it down to about 3ft will it form a nice shrub then, or will it just die ?    Thanks  Mrs Bouquet

[snowdrops]

I’d like to guess you could cut it right down & it will reshoot particularly at this time of year. Give it a feed of something natural to give it a boost

[New shoot]

They are very tough and will re-sprout from brown wood.  It is not a guarantee but worth a go if the standard tree is causing you problems.  I have done similar radical prunes on old stock when I worked in a specimen plant nursery and got away with it.

If you can, give it a really good mulch of something like soil improver or bagged manure after cutting it back and make sure you keep it watered. 

In the nursery we had pot grown plants, so would lop the top, turn them out of the pot and  prune the roots back as well.  Repotted and put in the hospital area for a few months they would come back ready to be sold. 

You didn't need to root prune of course, but just telling you that to illustrate how we used to put photinia through the mill and they would bounce back