Ailing Tea Tree Plants

 

I've got 2 tea tree plants. They are just under 1m high and at least 6
years old.  They've both grown quite happily, with just an annual
trim.

However this year most of the top of both bushes has died off and
there were virtually no flowers in April.  I've left it since then to
see what happens. I've got a fair few shoots, but only about 10% of
what I used to have.

The bushes had a couple of inches of snow lying on them back in the
early Winter.

I'm wondering if I should take a few inches off the top to get it to
regrow properly ... or if the bushes have had their time?

Michael

 
I take it you are talking about Melaleuca.
It's not hardy in the UK, I had one for 9 years in a cold glasshouse,
but last winter killed it.
I must gather some of the seed capsuls and see if I can get any viable
seed to grow.
David Hill

 

Many thanks.  I had a go at it on Saturday and there was a fit bit
more that was dead than I realised, so I had to take them back to
mostly just a few branches.  However there's enough growth there to
make me think it's got a fair chance.

I think it'll be fairly obvious in a month or 2.

Michael

 
Michael D;929868 Wrote:

You are lucky yours are still alive, mine have all died in the recent
winters.  The red damask actually proved hardier than the white flowered
one for me. Lovely things but I won't buy them again until it looks like
we can rely on a run of a few mild winters again.  Maybe having yours
against the housewall saved them.


When they were alive, I found that, like leyland cypress and ceanothus
and the like, they don't grow back if you cut them back further than the
green stuff.  So don't cut them back too far.  L scoparium is naturally
a rather vertical plant, having encountered many of them in clumps in
NZ, so it's difficult to get them very bushy.




--
echinosum