Absolutely sure. That's why I wrote it feet and not " just to be clear.
It was taller than the conservatory and blocked sun and scraped the glass. I didn't plant it and had no particular feelings about it. So, what the hell, out came the loppers.
They do really well for a good cut down, my photo on the other page shows just that. I had a really huge one, White flowers, suffered badly in the winter, the flowers always went brown, so we cut it right down level with the ground, next year, beautiful! you won’t harm them by cutting back, however, I would do as Luis says and do it now, I would wait until this cold wet weather is over say end of May into June.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I totally understand that Camellias are resilient to heavy pruning, but that's not the question I've been asking...
I don't wish to simply want to prune it down to nothing, as it's a lovely mature tree. The issue is that it's all growing at the top, like a canopy, with not much beneath. I want to generate new growth in the brown wood below, AND KEEP the canopy.
I was considering notching above any dormant buds I can find, hoping this might result in new growth from that bud. The science bit is that this notch interrupts flow of hormone sent down by the apical (top) bud which will suppress growth lower down.
As I'm not attached to my camellias besides the one I cut right down I also have, at various times, attacked my other 2. Cutting lower branches off at the trunk encourages growth. I found that out when I decided to get rid of one. My OH said I could put branches into the skip we'd hired but only after he'd finished. I lopped off from the bottom up. Didn't get far. Life got in the way, camellia went on growing.
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It was taller than the conservatory and blocked sun and scraped the glass. I didn't plant it and had no particular feelings about it. So, what the hell, out came the loppers.
I had a really huge one, White flowers, suffered badly in the winter, the flowers always went brown, so we cut it right down level with the ground, next year, beautiful!
you won’t harm them by cutting back, however, I would do as Luis says and do it now, I would wait until this cold wet weather is over say end of May into June.
I totally understand that Camellias are resilient to heavy pruning, but that's not the question I've been asking...
I don't wish to simply want to prune it down to nothing, as it's a lovely mature tree.
The issue is that it's all growing at the top, like a canopy, with not much beneath.
I want to generate new growth in the brown wood below, AND KEEP the canopy.
I was considering notching above any dormant buds I can find, hoping this might result in new growth from that bud. The science bit is that this notch interrupts flow of hormone sent down by the apical (top) bud which will suppress growth lower down.
Anyone got any insight into that, or tried it?