jenlandry
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help! severely pruned camelia

Our new house we will be moving into soon has a Camellia up against the house in the front. It has been severely pruned to be one branched trunk and the leaves don't start until about 6 feet up the trunk! I attached a picture (see Camellia on right side of house) ....it is not the best picture but that is all I have for now. Is there anyway to encourage growth where there are no branches? No on has lived in the house for 3 years and it just finished blooming - it was heavy with blooms! But it just looks a bit awkward to me the way it is pruned.

Any help is appreciated! :-)
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camellia house pic.jpg
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rainbowgardener
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I don't know that pruning could create that. What side of the house is it on? It may be that the leaves died off because they were too shaded right up against the house like that, especially if the house is facing north.

The only thing you can try to get it to leaf out more normally is to cut the whole thing off down to about a foot above the ground. You obviously sacrifice some growth and bloom that way, but it should branch out and be more leafy after that. But if it is too shady for it there, it still won't do well.

They are not a full sun plant, but they do need some hours of morning sun and the farther north you are, the more sun they would benefit from.

jenlandry
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thank you. I heard that Camellia's could take dramatic pruning! This faces a direct, unblocked Eastern direction. The house has been vacant 3 years and so it has been on its own and yet bloomed like crazy. It probably gets a good dose of Southern sun also in the summer. It was surrounded with many, many weeds until a couple days ago. I will see if I have the courage to chop this baby back! :-)

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applestar
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IF it had been meticulously pruned, then it’s possible it has no more potential buds.
Another idea I had is maybe something — LIKE DEER? —has been nibbling the lower buds and side shoots.

If it doesn’t have natural potential buds, you may have to artificially induce bud formation — only *theoretical way* I know to do that is to pull the upward growing branch tips down to horizontal or lower WITHOUT BREAKING …then make several nicks in the bark at part that is parallel to the ground. If successful, the healing scar tissue will reorganize and form buds to grow upward from the top of the arch.

If it does have natural bud forming sites, then bending the upward growing branches as described above alone could induce growth along apex of the arch.

luis_pr
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What you are looking at in the picture is called a tree camellia. This one must be quite old to have a trunk that tall. It is very common to develop them like trees once they achieve large heights. The previous owner must have pruned off the leaves/branches below a certain level (6' maybe) and left only foliage growing at the top. This is a similar thing as that which is done to Crape Myrtles down here. Foliage may grow below the bare areas but it will be in random locations and perhaps not "aesthetically" pleasing.

Since the tree camellia's look is not to your liking, you can cut the tree down to a lower height and then allow time for foliage to develop from the "new" top. You may loose bloomage on the first year. Maintain the soil as evenly moist as possible to help with recovery, I have not done this in the Spring though.

With some Crape Myrtles, people do this every year. The reason is that some CMs gets large/tall and the owner(s) wants the tree to produce bloomage much lower than it currently does. So every year, when the Crape Myrtle is sleeping in winter, they cut it down to the height they want.They call it Crape Murder as it not recommended that you do that every year to prevent fungal issues. Better yet to plant a Crape Myrtle that is more compact. But doing this once in a while, like your case, it would be ok. You may be able to do this cutting successfully in winter and get start getting foliage (you slowly get more leaves every year) but like I said, I have not done it in Spring time. You can instead start fertilizing in March, May and July. The July period... I sometimes skip if it is very hot. As long as it has some decomposing organic mulch, it will get enough food. Forgetting to feed it, even a whole year, is ok too; so no reason to panic. In July though, I choose a fert with low nitrogen levels. In March and May, I use cottonseed meal. I would wait until it leafs out -after you cut it down- before fertilizing in winter. If you try this in Spring, post and let us know how it works out.



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