How severely can Elaeagnus be trimmed and when is best to make a major remodeling?

If you are talking about the common invasive thorny eleagnus...
https://www.lewisginter.org/el...

I cut them down with a chainsaw...

I'm not sure that you can treat goumi that way though:
https://www.phillyorchards.org...

I grow goumi, spit the seeds out for the chickens... But I don't prune.

The plant in question came with the property and is fairly well behaved, but has gotten too big. I don't want to get rid of it, I just want to be able to see out my living room window. Will it recover its relatively good looks if I cut it back by one third?

I still need some idea of what you have...
Should be easy to locate thorns or attempts to climb trees if one of the invasives.
If you have goumi...
I think I'd wait at least until like late winter... January or February...
http://usefulplants.org/refere...

No thorns or edible berries. Since you say late winter would be safest, I'll wait until then to make a major adjustment. Meanwhile I will keep lopping off the long shoots it sends up sporadically. Sound okay?

Long shoots?
I see that on the thorny invasive kind...
I spotted a few berries on my goumi yesterday...
One year I got a fantastic crop of berries... last year? This year? Not so much.

I think what I have must be Elaeagnus x ebbingei. It is evergreen, has no thorns or berries. Late winter would still be the best for remodeling?

https://pfaf.org/user/cmspage....
E. x ebbingei flowers and fruits most freely on the current year's growth, though it does also produce short fruiting spurs on old wood. If the plants are trimmed in late summer (when being grown as a hedge for example) then you will be removing most of the plant's potential for producing fruit. The simple answer to this is to only trim the hedge in the spring, after harvesting the fruit.

I don't know what to tell you...

Most sites say late winter... above site suggests Spring pruning after picking fruit.

When I do heavy pruning on any foundation bushes around here... I refuse to do major cutting until just before active growth... February, in my area.

Can't be clearer than that... A lot of the when is going to be determined by one's own experience with the area under consideration.

Thanks, I think I will trim in late winter as you originally suggested.

MOST people would want to see what porkpal is discussing, and then comment. That the entire membership of this forum is bereft of the least inkling of interest in images is inconsistent.

At least take a photo of one of "...the long shoots it sends up sporadically..." that you intend to remove, and post it in all its in glory. I'd like to see the WHOLE plant, too - but I'd settle for a well-represented stem.

My camera and computer are not on speaking terms at the moment. My apologies.

I HATE air when that happens! Usually it's because of me though.

ViburnumValley said: MOST people would want to see what porkpal is discussing...

Yeah... True enough...
But I see a lot of eleagnus (invasive, remember?)... I know what those stems look like... They climb trees, and cover the deer fence... At least on the deer fence they help keep the deer out...

While the highway crew is planting that stuff along the interstate... the rest of us... are trying to eradicate it from private property...

https://garden.org/plants/sear...

@porkpal: I absolutely understand difficulties with technology - I am a Luddite, and it doesn't help to live where there are no "big pipes" of technology to connect to. Dialup had long been the standard; today's "hot spot" is slightly better - but I see too many tortoise tail lights and eat the dust of every snail that whizzes by.

I vote that you enlist a friend/neighbor/relative/teenager for getting photos posted, and ditch the obstacle. Your fans await breathlessly.

@stone: I have no doubt you know your way around the invasive species you describe. My point was that the plant in question could be positively IDd if it could be seen in all its parts - AS WELL AS gaining some understanding of the cultural and management situation.

I was in no way meaning to throw e-bricks at anyone, just pointing out that no one had even asked. You know that's practically the first thing out of my keyboard, every time...

Working on it...

ViburnumValley said: I absolutely understand difficulties with technology - I am a Luddite...

enlist a friend/neighbor/relative/teenager for getting photos posted...

My point was that the plant in question could be positively IDd if it could be seen in all its parts

No offense taken...

I prefer pictures too.

Unfortunately, like porkpal, My camera is on it's last legs... Can sympathize...

For a long time, I've been taking pics, and then carry the camera card to computer... Use Irfanview to crop and resize... load pic onto thumb drive, carry to library in town... plug into their computer to put online...

porkpal said: My camera and computer are not on speaking terms at the moment. My apologies.

What's the specific issue?

I'm the specific issue. I don't have time to tinker with it.

Me too! Only I don't have time to blame, it's just me.

Wow! I could be like the Visigoths, and come over and conquer porkpal, stone, and CPPgardener in a pixel-less coup...