I try to trim my cypress topiaries in the fall at the end of the growing season. These topiaries have been replanted into larger pots, rotated and loved on enough by me. I fear they are on their last legs as they are now only green on the front and have lots of dead matter.
I usually wear leather gloves to garden work, but it's hard to hold scissors with a glove on. I eyeball the plant and look for the linear line and just start hacking away at all the new growth. I try to hold the shears at a 38 degree angle. Then I try to trim out the dead matter to clean it up a bit.
Better than it was...I'm going to leave that big lump on the side to let it fill in a hole and then trim it when I put Christmas lights on them in Dec. Aengus is my faithful companion and suns himself on the stoop. 