Hey that's awesome Morgan!
I have a multiheaded medusa of a beast that is eating the house and I've been trying to get up the courage...to do something
every year it gets infested with skeletonizing beetle larvae I threaten to cut it down
so, how did this work out? any more updates?

It had no problem sending up lots of fresh new bushy growth and looked great for a while. But, the new growth wasn't strong enough to support itself in the wind and it flopped again. I cut it back multiple times and it always grew back quickly... too quickly maybe. Finally a large section of it wilted and dried up. I found it had been infested with tiny beetles that bored into the stems. I'm not sure if that was the result of all the cutting back or unrelated. I dug it out after that. I know some people coppice these every year to keep them small and just sacrifice the blooms. I don't know if I wasn't shaping it right, if it is just too windy here, or what the problem was.

Thanks, unfortunate it didn't work out better for you and yours
...not sure what I'll do with mine...probably ineffectively battle the beetles, try some hacking, and eventually cut it down