Can I keep Yuletide Camellia at the height of 5' ? (growing, trees)

[Baike]

https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/CamelliaYuletide.htm

Mature Height: 8-10 ft.

I planted it in between two bushes, in the future, can I use hedge trimmer and control it under 5' (roughly same height as bushes).

Is it bad for Yuletide Camellia if I don't let it grow to its mature height?

Thanks.

[Zoisite]

You can keep them aesthetically shaped and pruned down to 5 feet high. They will get bushier and wider in their lower growth and will actually get a lot more blooms on them by keeping them a bit shorter in height. There are rows of them growing in our town center plaza and recreational grounds and they are all kept at around 5 to 5.5 feet for quick and easy maintenance by hand and no high step ladders are needed. They get their maintenance pruning and reshaping once every two or three years after achieving 5 feet high. It's not healthy for them if you prune them down every single year.

Don't use a hedge trimmer !!!! - that will just butcher and ruin the plant. It will look ragged and bloody awful. You need to prune it and shape it judiciously by hand and branch by branch with proper pruning shears.

They look lovely in winter with their scarlet blooms.


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[Baike]

Originally Posted by Zoisite

It's not healthy for them if you prune them down every single year.


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Why?

[Zoisite]

Yuletide Camellia can be lightly trimmed each year after spring to maintain an overall nice shape if you are selective about pruning a branch sticking out here, step back to take a look then snip a tip there, step back to look again then snip another branch over here and another one over there - that kind of selective cutting is okay once a year because you're just cutting a little bit here and there to maintain a nice conformation and to keep it open and airy.

But if you cut off all of the new top growth every year to keep it short in height that forces more growth to happen every year on lower branches and in the interior parts of the plant closer to the trunk in places where there shouldn't be new growth for the good health of the plant. The plant can become crowded with too much weak and spindly new growth at lower levels all fighting to reach out to more light and then the plant becomes stressed. Circulation of air around the crowded lower and inner branches and leaves of the plant becomes impeded and stagnant, beads of moisture from humidity that occurs from watering the plant becomes trapped under small clusters of leaves and then breeds bacteria or mold, small branches near the lower trunk can shed leaves then go brittle then die and break off and the whole plant becomes more susceptible to fungal, bacterial and insect infestations.

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