Ceanothus Trewithen Blue

Tanty2 · February 2023

Hi - I hope someone can help with a very specific question. I have some established Ceanothus Trewithen Blue which I want to prune hard. They were planted six years ago and have taken over part of the garden

Does anyone have advice or experience related specifically to these plants? Thanks!

Hostafan1 · February 2023

I've never tried, but as you have more than one, perhaps try one and see how it reacts?

GardenerSuze · February 2023

@Tanty2 Is it an evergreen form if so I would say cutting into old wood will probably mean it won't recover.

Tanty2 · February 2023

Hi GardenerSuze - yes, it is an evergreen form.

clematisdorset · February 2023

I have this Ceanothus @Tanty2 and mine is at the height of first floor windows and it looks amazing when in bloom. Mine gets wind ravaged and the leaves turn a bit dry and brownish in winter to early spring but recover in the summer. I have found parts of the tree have naturally died off due to too much shade in parts. When it got to about 6, I thinned out some of the branches and it has improved the appearance. I also had to saw off a stem that was growing out of my garden boundary. It seems to be resilient and bloomed twice last year (heatwave). I understand they are usually classed as 'short-lived' ( mine is about 9 years old now). Can I ask why you are thinking of giving it a hard prune? Is it because of the size only? I think they are beautiful and uplifting.

Tanty2 · February 2023

I completely agree about how gorgeous they are and I love mine! They are shading out so much other planting (a rookie error, entirely my fault) and where I have five around a corner, I want to reduce that to three as they're way too close together. As they are, I can only prune hard wood and have been advised they won't regrow if I do that, but just for a second opinion I wondered if anyone had specifically done that to these specific plants

I can, of course, just try one and see what happens...

clematisdorset · February 2023

Yes, mine are shading out parts of the garden so can imagine with 5 of the lovely trees

it must be more so. I suppose you could prune parts that are most shady or experiment with just trying 1 of them...have had growth close to where I pruned e.g where I sawed off a particularly thick limb by my boundary but I cannot recall where exactly the regrowth occured. I can check tomorrow in the daylight! Overall, I am still experiencing a lovely tree with blooms after sawing but I only cut a maximum of 6 thick and 1 much thicker limb. I last thinned it last year due to shade issues. I love watching the blue tits on it in winter and the bees in summer and the scent is amazing for 3-6 weeks depending. Maybe someone else has more experience?

punkdoc · February 2023

The general advice: don't prune too hard, don't cut into old wood.

clematisdorset · February 2023

clamarver said:

Yes, mine are shading out parts of the garden so can imagine with 5 of the lovely trees it must be more so. I suppose you could prune parts that are most shady or experiment with just trying 1 of them...have had growth close to where I pruned e.g where I sawed off a particularly thick limb by my boundary but I cannot recall where exactly the regrowth occured. I can check tomorrow in the daylight! Overall, I am still experiencing a lovely tree with blooms after sawing but I only cut a maximum of 6 thick and 1 much thicker limb. I last thinned it last year due to shade issues. I love watching the blue tits on it in winter and the bees in summer and the scent is amazing for 3-6 weeks depending. Maybe someone else has more experience?

Opos my typo: I have had regrowth close to where I pruned.. .

Tanty2 · February 2023

Punkdoc, everyone says 'don't prune into old wood' but unless you prune them when the new growth is active, what else can you prune?? This is specifically why I wanted the advice of people who have this plant and have pruned this exact plant

Anyway, Clamarver, thanks so much for the input - let me know about the new growth once there's some daylight, please! I think I'll try reducing one of them by a third this Spring after flowering, see how it behaves...

punkdoc · February 2023

If you prune lightly, after flowering, you are only cutting new wood, and the plant never gets larger than you want.

Ceanothus Trewithen Blue

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