{"id":3284,"date":"2019-01-03T18:58:35","date_gmt":"2019-01-03T18:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3284"},"modified":"2019-03-06T23:13:35","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T23:13:35","slug":"assessing-a-neglected-shrub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3284","title":{"rendered":"Assessing a Neglected Shrub"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A situation\nthat could arise in any garden, including your garden: the gardener becomes\naware of a shrub that has been neglected and that has outgrown its space and\nbecome rather misshapen. In addition, the gardener has lost track of the\nshrub\u2019s name and can\u2019t locate cultivation notes on the Internet. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently\nhad such a challenge in my garden\u2019s Australian bed. While I was not paying\nattention, a shrub grew to about five feet high and eight feet wide, and began\ncrowding adjacent plants. In addition, it had been produces leaves and flowers\nat the ends of its branches, so that the interior of the plant consisted of\nbare branches. Some of those had died back so that lifeless tips of branches\nappeared among the greenery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plant\nhad been in place for a few years, and I could not recall its name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past\nseveral years, when I added a plant to the garden, I searched the Internet for\na photo, a verbal description, cultivation notes, and any other information of\ninterest, and compiled it into a one-page \u201cfact sheet\u201d to be added to my files.\nSuch searches begin with the plant\u2019s botanical name, which is almost always\nlisted on the plant\u2019s tag or nursery container. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result,\nI had a binder of such information for the plants in the Australian bed.\nDespite this preparation, I could not identify this plant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nstaring at my files for Australian plants, I realized that one fact sheet\ndescribed this particular plant quite well, but the accompanying photo showed\nred flowers. The plant in question has white flowers! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently,\nI had included a photo of a different cultivar of the plant. I learned that the\nred-flowered cultivar is more widely used than the white-flowered species in my\ngarden. (The \u2018Snow White\u2019 cultivar has double, green-centered blooms, but my\nplant has single white blooms with unremarkable centers.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I replaced\nthe photo, and was satisfied that the plant is a Tea Tree or Manuka (Leptospermum\nscoparium), a member of the Myrtle plant family (Myrtaceae) and a native of\nAustralia and New Zealand. The generic name means slender seeds, and the\nspecific name means broom-like. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tea Tree or Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I then\nlearned that this plant has several desirable characteristics. It is\ndrought-tolerant, fairly slow-growing, appealing to bees and not appealing to\ndeer. It has fragrant, evergreen foliage and a profusion of small flowers that\nappear in the late spring and summer, and linger into the fall. Its leaves can\nbe brewed into a fine tea and Manuka honey produced by bees from its flowers\nhas medicinal properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the downside, at maturity this plant can reach ten feet tall and\nwide, making it too large for my Australian bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I considered pruning this shrub to manage its size. My Internet research\nfound advice that the Tea Tree could be pruned after flowering to maintain\nshape and encourage bushier, more floriferous growth. However, pruning should\nnever cut into bare wood \u201cas new growth is unlikely to sprout.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This reflects the pruning advice for plants that also flower on the\nprevious year\u2019s growth, including Camellias, Rhododendrons, Lavenders, and several\nothers. This is critical information, because hard pruning of the Tea Tree would\nleave it looking and performing essentially dead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While a light pruning after pruning would stimulate next spring\u2019s growth\nat the ends of branches, there is no opportunity to reduce and maintain this\nsprawling plant to a more compatible size. If had been grown as a hedge or as a\nbackdrop for the garden, it could have had long-term value in the landscape. In\nits current stage of growth and its present location, however, it will be an\nincreasing problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This assessment of a particular plant recalls a basic guideline for\nlandscape planning: always know a plant\u2019s size at maturity before buying and\nplacing it in the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great satisfaction can result from a well-placed plant. Conversely,\nremoving a healthy plant leads to regret. From a positive perspective, removing\nthe Tea Tree will eliminate conflict with nearby plants and free space for\nsmaller Australian native plants. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A situation that could arise in any garden, including your garden: the gardener becomes aware of a shrub that has been neglected and that has outgrown its space and become rather misshapen. In addition, the gardener has lost track of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[186],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-3284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essays-2018","tag-landscaping"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2WCVL-QY","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3284"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3287,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3284\/revisions\/3287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}