Pruning always worked for my grandmother's medicinal witch hazel and how she prevented it from becoming too large to manage. She'd remove suckers, all dead, any tiny/thin, weaker and criss-crossing branches yearly (in the autumn whenever they'd completely finished flowering) just to neaten it up, but she cut it back severely to about 1 to 1-1/2 foot tall ONLY when it exceeded the desired, manageable size (whenever it reached over 8 to 10 feet) then waited for it re-grow and mature again. To reduce its size, prune back the growth to no less than two buds but leave as many of the floral buds on the base of the healthy stems as possible -- usually about 1 to 1-1/2 feet tall. They are rounder than the oval leaf buds. She would toss any suckers and get rid of any dead or damaged trimmings and used the rest that was healthy to cut up to make her tinctures. She always made sure her cutting tools were clean and disinfected. Depending upon the size/fatness of the stems she used everything from razor blades and very sharp garden scissors to freshly sharpened hand held hedge loppers/trimmers for a smooth, straight, horizontal cut.
Pruning always worked for my grandmother's medicinal witch hazel and how she prevented it from becoming too large to manage. She'd remove suckers, all dead, any tiny/thin, weaker and criss-crossing branches yearly (in the autumn whenever they'd completely finished flowering) just to neaten it up, but she cut it back severely to about 1 to 1-1/2 foot tall ONLY when it exceeded the desired, manageable size (whenever it reached over 8 to 10 feet) then waited for it re-grow and mature again. To reduce its size, prune back the growth to no less than two buds but leave as many of the floral buds on the base of the healthy stems as possible -- usually about 1 to 1-1/2 feet tall. They are rounder than the oval leaf buds. She would toss any suckers and get rid of any dead or damaged trimmings and used the rest that was healthy to cut up to make her tinctures. She always made sure her cutting tools were clean and disinfected. Depending upon the size/fatness of the stems she used everything from razor blades and very sharp garden scissors to freshly sharpened hand held hedge loppers/trimmers for a smooth, straight, horizontal cut.