Comments on: Stewartia pseudocamellia

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 17:37:32 +0000

I'd like to plant a five-foot stewartia in the following space: about six feet from house, between two garage windows six feet apart, with another window twenty feet up. Is this tree going to grow too large?
Thank you!

By: Matt Mattus

Matt Mattus — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 09:36:36 +0000

That's so sad! I would be devastated. But I think it may be savable, since Stewartia respond well to pruning ( it is a popular bonsai subject). I would recommend that you cut the thickest stems back to near another branch or truck, and most likely they will heal over in an attractive scar, as in nature. As long as the overall effect is irregular, tip branched back to near other branching forks. I would imagine that before long, you won't notice. I often trim large branches off of ours for floral arrangements in winter, and for inclusion in winter evergreen displays for the holidays. and but the end of the following summer I can't notice them missing. All is not lost.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 08:24:20 +0000

My 9 month old Stewardia was off to a slow start. It was bare until late May and just over the last few weeks it established many new green shoots starting from the bottom and edging upward every day. It was about 75% new growth and I returned home today from a barbecue to find my landscapers had butchered it. The cut off all the top shoots of the tree -crew cut style and cut many limbs including two primary limbs about halfway. These carrying limbs were both on the right side of the tree. It is a lopsided shrub now. My baby that I have been watching, watering, and fussing over is now a mutant. I am sick.
I went to the landscaper’s home ( a dear family friend) crying and asked why? His response was he cut all the dead branches and this would establish new growth.
From everything I have read, you don't cut primary branches, you don’t give haircuts (cutting the tops off), you don’t cut summer blooming trees in the summer just when they are about to bloom. All those “dead” branches were growing beautiful new shoots. The shape of the tree was lovely with wispy shaped branches. No more wispy branches… They are now blunt cut stalks. I am so upset… just beside myself over a tree. I can’t even look at it as it now is deformed. Sorry, I just needed to vent.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:09:40 +0000

It's such a beauty. I really groove on the trunk, branches and bark too. It never got established in my heavy, wet, then concrete-like clay. But when I see one, it does transport me to some imaginary, formal Japanese garden. For me, this little tree is just about as close to perfection as one can get! Thanks for a lovely post.

Nanina