By Muddyshoes
South Yorkshire,
United Kingdom 
I have a sambucus Sutherland gold plant in my garden which has been there for about three years. It is now about 6 foot tall and is just starting to leaf. The trouble is the leaves are mostly on the top of the plant as shown in the attached photo. It has never been pruned as I didn't think it would need it, but now I am not so sure. Can someone help with this, and if it can be pruned is it now too late being almost into May. Hope someone can help.
30 Apr, 2015
Answers
I have a sambucus 'Black Lace' that I prune back to around three feet in early spring every year. By the end of the summer it has still reached seven feet or more.
30 Apr, 2015
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I'd cut it now, wouldn't fancy looking at that all summer. I'd remove the top two thirds, then give it a good feed. When I had one of these, I used to prune it every August, when it started to look a bit tatty - I kept mine between 2 and 5 feet. They cope well with hard pruning, can be coppiced every 2-3 years - that's the RHS advice.
30 Apr, 2015