John - I have had Mother Nature "prune" mine with hurricane winds. I thought that is what you were talking about! LOL!
You know what ... mine would die back too and I used to prune what I thought was dead wood every Spring. One year I didn't cut back the dead wood and guess what ... most of the "dead" limbs produced leaves in the late Spring. I was amazed! My son used to tell me to chop them down and remove them because they looked so dead, but alas .... they were only sleeping. I've not had to remove but a few pieces of dead wood even after the coldest winters. Mostly I prune live branches because the growth is incredible once I stopped removing the "dead" wood after each Winter to allow them to grow larger. LOL! They are pruned into tree form. Many of my taller shrubs are grown as standards in my yard. From Cape Honeysuckle to Brugs to these Cassia plants. I like small trees because it gives the birds and butterflies a place to hide/roost. I have to prune the branches though so I still get filtered sunlight to grow all the ground level plants. My backyard looks like a jungle during the height of the growing season here. The downside ... it's a lot of work to maintain. But .... I get my exercise ... so it helps me stay healthy and active. LOL! (That's what I tell myself anyway! LOL LOL LOL)
