When and how do I prune a camellia?

Camellias are among the least demanding evergreen shrubs in a British garden and one of the easiest to spoil with pruning at the wrong time. They flower from late winter into spring on wood made the previous year, and they spend the summer building the buds you will see next spring. That leaves a narrow window and a simple rule.

What you'll need

• Secateurs
• Loppers
• Pruning saw for thick stems
• Gloves
• Ericaceous mulch (optional)

Step by step

1. Prune as soon as the last flowers drop.Usually April or May, depending on the variety and the season. Every week you delay eats into the time the plant has to make and set next year's buds.
2. Start by asking whether it needs pruning at all.Camellias make a naturally good shape and most need only dead wood removed and the occasional shoot that spoils the outline. Routine annual clipping is unnecessary and reduces flowering.
3. Remove dead, damaged and crossing branches.Cut back to a healthy shoot or to the main stem. Camellias hold dead twiggy growth inside the canopy, and clearing it improves airflow.
4. Shorten wayward shoots back into the body of the plant.Cut just above a leaf joint. New growth breaks from just below the cut, so cutting to a leaf pointing where you want the growth to go works exactly as it does on a rose.
5. Thin rather than clip if it is congested.Taking out whole branches from within the plant keeps its natural layered shape. Shearing the outside produces a dense green shell with all the flowers on the surface and dead twigs inside.
6. Reduce a large camellia in stages if you can.Take a third of the height off over two or three years rather than all at once. The plant looks better throughout and flowers more consistently.
7. Accept the cost if you must cut hard.Camellias will break from old bare wood, unlike many evergreens, so a severe cut back is survivable. It sets flowering back by at least a year, often two, and the regrowth needs thinning to avoid a thicket.
8. Feed with an ericaceous fertiliser and mulch after pruning.Camellias are lime-hating and appreciate an acidic mulch of composted bark, leafmould or ericaceous compost after cutting, particularly if they are working to regrow.
9. Water through the summer, especially in July and August.This is when next spring's buds are forming, and drought at that point is the commonest cause of a camellia that produces buds and then drops them. Camellias in pots and against walls need particular attention.

Tips

• Camellias are traditionally kept off east-facing walls. Early morning sun thaws frosted flower buds too fast and turns them brown — a north or west aspect is kinder.
• Brown mush on the flowers rather than the buds is usually frost damage or camellia petal blight; either way, clear the fallen petals rather than leaving them under the plant.
• Deadheading a camellia is cosmetic and does not increase flowering. On a large plant it is not worth the effort; on a small one by a path it looks better.
• Camellias in pots must have ericaceous compost and, ideally, rainwater. Tap water in a hard-water area gradually raises the pH and yellows the leaves.

Common mistakes

• Pruning in autumn or winter to tidy it — Next spring's flower buds are already on the plant and clearly visible as fat rounded buds. Cutting them off removes the display.
• Clipping the outside like a hedge — It creates a green shell with a dead interior and puts every flower on the surface. Thinning whole branches keeps the plant's natural structure.
• Letting it dry out in midsummer — The buds for the following spring are formed in July and August. Drought then produces bud drop the following winter, months after the actual cause.

Questions people ask