I have grown Hamelia patens, [Firebush] for years but it never really cared for the mucky soil or the shade at my previous home so it never got very large. Here it is a different story and I have a monster on my hands, it is about 7' tall, much larger than it should be for where it is growing. I know I should wait for next spring to cut it back but what would happen if I prune it now? Any ideas on how to keep it in bounds?

Alice, I purchased a dwarf firebush for exactly that reason. It was slightly battered by Dorian's winds, but it should recover easily.

, I wonder if I was growing dwarf ones? I was blaming it on my poor soil but maybe they weren't supposed to get big.

Even my dwarf gets over 6 foot tall. If you cut it back it will grow back but may not get anymore flowers before winter. I have a couple hummers that visit mine several times a day, also butterflies. I see them kept trimmed back as hedges and they still flower, but those are probably the dwarf, I'm sure at one point they don't trim them so they will flower, late summer and fall is when they look the best.

I had one that was labeled dwarf, but it wasn't and turned into a tree, even with freezing back and hacking it down if it didn't freeze, it would come back and grow to over 12 foot tall each year. I had to finally remove it, wasn't in a good spot for a tree. Made me sad because it was much prettier and had more beautiful flowers than my dwarf does. When I would hack it back in the spring it would rebound quickly but took several months till it started flowering again.

well drat, this one is beautiful and the hummers and the butterflies do love it. But, it is marring our view.

Sounds like a plant in the wrong place, wouldn't be the first time . We have had success in moving a plant to another place, and failures, especially more established plants. You could cut it back and plant other butterfly and hummer plants around, then try and move it in the spring.

the garden here is pretty but there are a lot of plants in the wrong places. There is a huge red honeysuckle that is blooming beautifully on the neighbor's side of the fence because it is shaded by a Spirea on our side. I did not even know Spireas grew here in FL.

My honeysuckle is on neighbors side too. I smell it.