it wont die unless you cut all the green off of it . if you cut to far back also in one place for instance one side past wear its green this will not grow back either . as long as you only cut it back wear there are green leaves for want of a better word it will be fine .

Agree with Noseypotter. Cut back branches that are in the way. It is your garden and not the trees! You can remove all the lower branches of a large evergreen: they look and deal well with such pruning. You are not supposed to ever remove the leader (the tip of the tree) perhaps you mixed it up with that.

If you remove the lower branches of a conifer hedge the trunks will be bare for ever after which is not what most people want from a hedge. You can in fact remove the leader - sorry Kildermorie - from the middle of the hedge, taking it down below where you want the top of the hedge to be. The sides will then grow up and meet over the middle and you can clip the top as usual. We have been unlucky enough to live in two houses with these hedges and this has always worked for us. But NP's right - once you cut back past the green portion on the sides you've had it - bare patches for always. It doesn't kill the plant unless you do it all over but it looks a mess. The blessed things do just go on getting wider.

just what i thaught steragram x .