I'm very anxious to obtain advice on how to save my Camellia. This very old north facing plant stood about 25' tall. It had a rather gangly interior but massive foliage and enough flowers to paint the ground brilliant red when the petals dropped. There where many buds on the camellia last week and this week and it was one of the earliest flowering plants in my garden. It was my plan to prune it after it flowered this spring but the heavy snows here in Victoria snapped the majority of the larger limbs. None of the limbs broke near the ground. The limbs are each 4-5" across. I've tried to make clean cuts just below where the limbs snapped and most of the limbs I pruned are now 5-6 feet off the ground. There was really only one of 6 limbs that didn't break but it remains at apx 18-20' tall (not the most elegant look). My concern is that there are really no small branches near the cuts from whence new foliage can start. I'm also reluctant to prune down that last tall branch (to reshape the tree again) and also because I would have no green leaf material left. I love this tree and would dearly love to know how to bring it back to life.
My understanding is that Camellia can be cut back hard and will bounce back, but I'd prefer if someone else chimed in to verify.
Aside from breakage, I usually won't cut most of a Camellia back hard, but when it's damaged, I remove the torn and broken ends with clean saw cuts. My preference is to leave a little bit extra stem, and then wait to see where the sprouts grow from. But they do recover fairly well. It sounds like you damage was snapping, not a peeling apart at weak unions. But since you mentioned breakage, maybe you would like to check out a small video that I recorded last week. It shows briefly, how home gardeners can cable / brace small or large shrubs, and small trees, to keep the stems from peeling apart at weak "V" shape unions. The text page is: http://www.mdvaden.com/cabling.shtml Then, on this page, is the video, among various tree care stuff: http://www.mdvaden.com/album_TreeCare.shtml The small video - today anyway - is around #9. There are one or two images in the first 10 frames of a small silk tree that was cabled. Anyway, you may just have broken limbs, but if you have other big plants, you may want to check the branch structure for Vs, to reduce the potential for more damage. About the Camellia, once more; they can suffer more from intentional topping, just like a tree can. But if the damage is done by weather, it's already been topped, so making clean cuts is better than ripped ones. But that remedy, doesn't mean it's healthy to stub-back (top) Camellia and other shrubs. Sometimes it has to be done because there is no more space. In that case, It's better to cut-back 30% to 50% of the stems or branches at a time.
Camellia are extremely tolerant of pruning-those tight little frequently pinched bushes on tea plantations are camellias-and will break from any point on the framework. The only problem you will have is that the plant is slow-growing and will take many years to regain anything like its original stature. If, on the other hand you would rather have a smaller, tighter shrub (and that would be in scale with the scene) then you could cut even more off and have it fill back in eventually.
