7 Steps to Professional Pruning
When you take a piece of stem or root from a plant, you are pruning it. The whole point of pruning is to get more from the plant. The goal may be to make the plant bloom better, and possibly to set more and better fruit; or it may be to improve the shape of the plant or to make it more dense. If a plant is in poor health it may be cut back first to remove diseased or infested portions and second, to encourage fresh new growth.

Best Way to Prune Hedges, Bushes, and Broadleaf Evergreens
If all the plants in a deciduous hedge are alive but perhaps weak and bare at the base, the hedge can be saved. For one season cultivate along the sides and fertilize in late winter and mid-spring. The following spring before buds begin to break, cut the hedge to the ground, or at least to very short stubs. As new growth develops, let the shoots reach 10 inches or so, then cut them back to half.