Naked nether regions

Knew you would turn up some time ?

I thought this was going to be a complaint about your neighbour having builders bum while gardening ?

Mine are on a south facing balcony. Thank you will do as you suggest.

Mine are in the ground, are yours inside? Being in pots shouldn’t matter as long as they are top dressed and fed.
Yes I would prune to a nodule, the energy put out by the plant should then result in new leaves from the nodules.

True it was a bad winter. When you say brune back to a lower leaf bud as there are no lower buds could that mean a bare nodule? The leaves are very yellow and dropping.

Yours looks like the variety of flowering dogwood. I have a couple. They flower in early summer, you can thin them out by cutting some stems down to a lower leaf bud. Thus making a better shape.
One of mine was almost decimated by a hard frost and snow, but it bounced back better than ever.

Doesn’t have red branches

Thank you, it is not a deciduous shrub, it does have the red branches.

If you want it to look ornamental over the summer I wouldn't cut it back now.

Is this grown for its coloured stems in the winter? If it is, and you don't mind it looking a bit unsightly for a while, you could cut it back hard now, it'll put on new growth over the summer, with leaves all the way up, and look beautiful when completely naked in the winter.