Native to Australia, lemon bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus) thrives in U.S. Department of Agricultural plant hardiness zones 8b through 10. Named for the lemony scent of its leaves and its dense flower spikes that resemble bottle brushes, blossoms may be creamy yellow or deep red. Lemon bottlebrush is a tree which grows to 15 feet tall, however, it is commonly pruned to form one trunk or multi-trunked small tree. Wait until late summer, after plants finish blooming, to prune these plants because blossoms bloom on new growth.
Clean all pruning instrument blades using a solution of diluted bleach, containing 9 parts water and one part bleach. This prevents spreading diseases among the numerous plants in your garden.
Pinch the tips of their branches in planting to encourage a circular kind. Pinch only over a leaf node in which you want to drive the plant to division.
Eliminate the decrease one-third of the foliage in the main stems if you wish to train the tree as a small shrub with multiple trunks. Select the strongest central branch and eliminate all other erect branches if you want to train the tree as a single trunk tree. Continue removing the lower third of the foliage as it grows. Pinch the tips of the canopy to encourage a curved shape.
Eliminate dead, broken and diseased branches back to your nearest healthy branch intersection. While you should do this during your yearly pruning ritual, it’s also advisable to remove them since they happen. Always disinfect the resources instantly after cutting diseased stems.
Eliminate all rubbing branches within the tree or tree, or any branches that grow inward, signaling they will rub together as the plant grows. Cut the branches just above the nearest healthful branch or just over an outward-facing grass.
Eliminate up to one-third of the total branches back to this point of origin on the parent stem to open up the canopy to air flow and sunlight. The one-time complete includes any branches previously removed in this pruning cycle.
Reduce the ends of divisions separately to shape the plant or use hedge shears to create a uniform contour in much less time.
Cut all branches back to ground level to renew older lemon bottlebrush plants. New growth will expand in the ground at the subsequent spring.
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