Those Shrubs Have Innards? Seriously?

Yes, there is a lot going on inside of your shrubs, particularly those more dense ones that have been trimmed season after season, year after year, with no one actually spending anytime looking at (inside) the plant - seriously looking, with a trained eye.

This holly was trimmed a few weeks before I had a chance to address it and look inside.

How could someone responsible for trimming this plant not realize they were also trimming weeds, vines and other young trees which had found a home in this holly?

And, it wasn't simply about all the foreign growth in the holly. My estimate is this holly should be around eight to ten feet tall, but it has been kept at bay from overly-aggressive trimming. This had led to suckers (virtually, new hollies inside) and strong vertical branches coming up from within. All signs of stress from its height being maintained unnaturally.

We don't make the rules - Mother Nature and their DNA do, but we tend to expect them to behave in ways we want or we assume we can control them, with no idea how they do what they do.

The final picture is after I had gone in and pruned the interior of the shrub and raised the canopy. You may not notice a drastic difference, but recognize some gaps in the foliage. This is a result of eliminating some unhealthy aspects of the holly. These will repair themselves over short time.

I have experienced much worse neglect whereas it is taking several years for the plant to recover. 

Fall is a fantastic time for pruning trees and shrubs for aesthetics and health reasons, even for some of those early spring bloomers.