Early spring is the ideal time to take on those long overdue
pruning jobs. The days are sunny and warm, but not yet hot. This
job takes a lot of energy, so get out the tools, roll up the
sleeves and let’s get started.

My neighbor Mike had a couple of camellias encroaching on the
sidewalk. They looked like perfect candidates to transform into
specimen trees while solving his space problem.

These plants were full to the ground but had gotten wider with
age. Six upright branches headed up to the top of the crown.

Get a Pruning Plan

To transform them into tree forms, we planned to remove the lower
branches and expose the main stems while trimming back the side
shoots that were spilling over into the walkway.

Now that we had a plan, we rounded up the pruning tools. First,
we needed a pair of strong-handled loppers to take off branches
up to one inch thick.

We had to have a couple of hand pruners, too, to remove the
branches that were finger-diameter and smaller. For the bigger
branches and trunks, a small, sharp pruning saw would do.

Start at the Bottom

Starting with the lowest, we began removing branches, enclosing
the base of the shrubs. We wanted to expose the bottom quarter to
one-third of the total plant height.

We would separate the branch and its foliage from the plant and
decide to keep or remove.

We kept the larger branches that would leave a hole in the plant
above our magic one-third line. Those below the line we pruned
out. We removed large, horizontal branches with the small pruning
saw.

Expose Upright Trunks

All of the thin, inner branches below the one-third line were
pruned out with the hand pruners to expose the large, smooth,
upright trunks.

We made all of the pruning cuts in a way that left no stubs to
take away from the branching structure. Damage to the remaining
trunks was avoided by cutting just outside of the collar, or
swelling, where the branch attaches to the trunk. These types of
cuts left the remaining structural trunks undamaged and properly
pruned.

Shorten Side Branches

After removing the lower branches and foliage covering the bottom
third of the shrubs, we needed to shorten the side branches on
the rest of the plant that were growing out into the walk.

These long shoots were tipped back by moving from the tip back to
an outward-facing lateral branch. We made the cuts at an angle
just above the lateral that remained. By shortening these long
branches, the sides shrink inward, giving more walking space.

Finally, we stood back and admired our handiwork. One side was
lower than the other and required a little touch-up. Several
branches seemed too long and protruded from the canopy. A couple
of quick snips, and they were back in place.

Now all that was left was to recycle all the limbs and leaves we
removed.