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pruning a camellia
eddieprice
Posts: 2
in Plants
I have recently moved to a new apartment. There is a camellia in a container which I think could be improved by pruning to a better shape, but I have never pruned a camellia before.. I have attached a photo. There is a thick main trunk and there are side shoots. Should it simply be left until the side shoots fill out the shape or should the trunk be cut now and the lower shoots allowed to grow? I also feel that the container is too close to the wall.
Last edited: 08 April 2017 09:57:43
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If you can't get it into the ground, I'd move it into a much bigger pot.
It has a certain, bonsai like quality about it. I'm not sure pruning is the answer, but a bigger pot would certainly help.
Yes I agree. The top of the pot is full of roots. As to the bonsai appearance - I don't know if that was deliberate or the result some uninentional hard pruning. I will certainly look out for a bigger pot. Presumably I should wait until it has finished flowering before attempting to move it.
I'd wait, for the sake of a couple more weeks.
I'd suggest you want a pot where the base is at least as wide as the top of your existing pot. Imagine how small the diameter is at the base of that pot.
I'd go for about another 6" / 150mm wider at the top. Maybe a wee bit more.
I had one just like that, grown into a silly shape and I don't like the 'lolly pop' look, I cut it right down and it grew out very quickly into a lovely bush shape, it is now in the open garden.
The flower colouring is wonderful, and it would be a shame for the plant to die, but for sure it must be pot bound and probably wouldn't last much longer in that small pot. I would bite the bullet and cut the top part off, feed and water it well and hope that it will thrive. We have a few very large camellia bushes/trees which need little or no maintenance apart from the odd shaping trim, and it seems whatever we do or don't do to them, they thrive from one year to the next.
Good luck eddieprice, and let us know if the plant survives the changes.
I think it might respond well to having just the tips of all shoots nipped out and then re-homing in a proper sized pot with good ericaceous compost and kept subsequently well watered and fed. It may take a while but I would expect it to bush out if well treated and you wouldn't lose height that way.
If it doesn't work you can then try cutting it back to a more even, rounder shape next spring after it's flowered. Either way, decent compost, feeding and watering will be key..