Deutzias & Eleagnus renovation

Eleagnus & Deutzias
My eleagnus & deutzia are 3 or 4 mtrs tall
They are bare for the first 2.5 mtrs then some foliage & some new shoots that appeared this year.

If I CUT ALL STEMS BACK TO ABOUT 0.5 MTRS(18") FROM GROUND NOW - MID JULY on south coast near Brighton.

Will I get new growth this year?
what do you think the result will be next year?
Any flowers?

Thanks

 

I think you have to do it if that's the state they are in! Both common so even if you kill them they would easily be replaced.

You will probably get a little bit of new growth this year but they will take off like a rocket next spring.

The deutzia won't flower much except on any growth it makes this year, or any twigs left from this year's growth. It will probably flower profusely in 2016, however. Having got it back under control take the opportunity to control how much new growth it produces each year, otherwise you will end up with a bush 3 metres tall and wide before too long. It is not very exciting as a foliage shrub! Prune straight after flowering, cutting away unwanted flowered twigs, then any new growth it makes after that can be left on to flower the following year.

The eleagnus doesn't flower anyway, AFAIK. Not decoratively anyway. You might get super-big lush foliage off this next spring.

I cut a lilac hard back into thick old branches last August, not a leaf left. It sulked till about mid-May this year, it's got a proper mop-head on now.