Secrets to Summer Camellia Pruning

A Trial Run for New Book

Gloria has been caring for these camellias since 1974. She doesn’t know who planted them, and she doesn’t really care. “When we first moved in here (1974), they were massive. You couldn’t see outdoor them. Gus cut those camellias down to the ground, and the former owner said, “You killed my camellias!”

(check out Gloria in the video at the end of this post.)

But you can’t kill a camellia by pruning too much. Or too little. In fact, you don’t have to do anything to them, ever. But there are things you can do for beauty and plant health.

For beauty, prune to open the plant up. If you don’t do some serious structural pruning every few years or so, most camellia bushes grow into 20-tall, dense, shapeless bulumps. Bulumps is my word—bush lumps. Some people refer to little parking lot bulumps as muffin tops but that word has unpleasant visuals so help me promote bulumps.  

Unpruned camellias, like most bulumps are graceless. As Momma said, ‘“You couldn’t see out for them.”

You can do camellias, fringe bushes, tea olive, American tea olive, anise, yaupon holly, cherry laurel, azaleas, deutzia, pittosporum, gardenias, loquats, and a ton of other non-summer flowering shrubs this way. 

PRUNE BULUMPS BY JULY 4

In this heat, pruning is a pretty good way to get outside. Go out early.  Get the right tool and get in there, under the shady canopy, and cut away. And if you don’t get this done by July 4 or so, your newly pruned, svelte, and elegant camellias won’t have time to recover leaves or make flowers by fall. If you miss things by a couple of weeks, it’ll be fine.  If you prune too much, you may lose flowers next year, but most shrubs, especially camellias, will be fine. 

WHY PRUNE?

I’m pruning the camellias in the video for safety. But you can do other plants the way this time of year. I pruned azalea, deutzia, and a massive Chinese Carolina Sweetspice ‘Hartledge Wine’ hard this week, too. My goal was to reduce shrub size near the house.

I think you ought to be able to see the windows of a house so that if a cat burglar tries to break in, there’s less hiding room. The smaller the bush, the easier neighbors and cameras can see them. 

I’m also doing it for the sake of the house. We don’t want the branches rubbing on the porch roof.

Here’s one more reason. In the video and these pics, you’ll see that I want to have flowering perennials around the base of the big old camellias. It's better to have the bottom limbs removed to let the perennials thrive. 

Finally, a reason for the health of the camellia is to encourage airflow for the interior of the plant. Pruning helps that. Have you ever shaken a bulump and disturbed a wasp nest?  That means that somewhere inside there is a clutch of dried leaves acting like a wasp roof. Not good. Other pests like dense interiors, too. Energy-sucking scales, for example. Let some light in there and reduce those pests. 

Here’s my process:

1. Start big. Get in low with a small saw. I use a small electric chain saw. Cut out low, horizontal, or crossing branches that are wrist-sized

   or bigger.  Step back. 

2. Scale down. Do the same thing again with loopers. For this go-over, look for branches the size of a hammer handle. Step back. 

3. Stepping back and looking is important.

4. Cut any wild trunks or branches. 

5. Do a very light sheer by hand or with sheers.  This is just so you don’t leave things looking wonky. 

6. Step back.  Look at this before and after photo:

The before photo (left) may be prettier. But by October, the camellia would have been over the roof and way too dense. The after (right) looks about the same but won’t be so massive by fall. Notice that you can see through parts of this one.

My fiction Once You Go Back is coming to an end. But I have plans for Sundays!