Does anyone have any pics of a severely pruned Gardenia and a pic of it later, looking good again?

This is the most recent pic of my biggest Gardenia, from 2021. Most of the trunks were about a foot taller than what it looks like in this pic, as of yesterday, well above my head. So I guess it was 7-8 feet tall at the tallest tips.


The tree you see behind and to the right was the sibling of the tree we cut yesterday. The tree in this pic looks much smaller because it originally had 3 trunks and 2 had already been removed. The last trunk that is still standing in the pic was cut down soon after this pic. It didn't cause any issues when it fell because there was plenty of room for it to fall with nothing in the way.

Yesterday it was time to take out the other tree, and the only place for it to fall because of power lines and the house, was right on the Gardenia. It took a direct hit, there was nowhere else for it to fall.

After we got all of the chunks of the tree out of the way, I trimmed off the broken parts of the Gardenia, which ended up being most of the middle. There were just a few tall stems left around the perimeter. It looked ridiculous so I finished trimming the whole thing down to about 2.5 - 3 feet. I'm not lamenting any of this, which was done at my urging and with my acknowledgment that the tree was going to fall on the Gardenia.

But now Gardenia looks totally chopped. I'm wondering if it can go back to looking decent in a few yrs?

BUT, on the upside, the tree is not in danger of falling toward the house or power lines anymore. The last time we had really strong winds, that thing was swaying so much, wobbling about a foot from side-to-side at eye level. I couldn't believe it didn't come down then on its own.

And as soon as I finish pulling this years' round of 42,739 laurel sprouts out of the flower bed in which the Gardenia is the main player, I'll be done with that annual chore forever. I spent some time yesterday picking the berries out of the bed, and should probably do more of that.

And now the front yard is finally suitable for gardening. I've been waiting to do more because of the enormous number of seeds that fall off of the tree. That's fine when mowing around it, but I want to garden my sunny front yard, and the tree was ill.

I thought about trying to propagate some of what came off of the Gardenia but I've never had luck trying such early props of that in the past. And after all of the work on the tree, I didn't have any more energy for deciding what to do with the props, let alone actually doing it.

I don't have pictures.... But those large leaf gardenias?
Absolutely have cut them back to the ground and seen immediate return to beauty.

So often people plant these things where there just isn't room for them... And those sheared plants need serious thinning or something...

Usually cutting back severely, works better than thinning.

Still time to plant some of those cuttings...
I'll let cuttings ride home in the back of the truck... Stick them in the ground the next day and usually get plants...

Thank you very much. There is plenty of room where I put it, but the tree wasn't ill at the time, no thoughts yet of taking it down.

Trimming it shorter is not a bad idea. I know I'll be poking myself with the stumps now that I have room to get in close and tackle some stupid berry vines trying to hide around the base. I've kept it thinned and trimmed for shape over the years, but did so often enough that it never looked trimmed.

I'll take a pic of the "after" in just a few more degrees. Probably feels good out there already with the sun shining but I still feel morning cold.

I warned, this is not pretty.


This is the stump of the tree that was cut. It will be a plant stand now.

Recovery update.

I scaffolded a lot of overgrown shrubs on my property when I purchased my house. Forsynthia, Smoke bushes, lilacs, variegated dogwood shrubs, and they all came back beautiful though it took a few years. Thinking about doing it to a honeysuckle shrub and a pussywillow that are now trees. I already see on each that there is new growth growing up from the base of the trunk. Both took a beating here with a late March wet snowstorm that caused a lot of damage. Another storm might finish them off, which is why I am leaning towards just cutting them down and starting over. I'm sure your gardenia will do just fine and will be gorgeous again in a few years.

Thanks for the encouragement! It's almost grown enough now that it hardly looks unusual, but it is so much shorter than it was. I need to go back and take off some awkward tips, now that it has decided where to leaf-out. Agree, it will take a few yrs to get taller than me again like it was.

I keep my camellias very short. It is next to a dwarf maple and a weeping elm. The trick is to trim it on different branches each year and allow the others branches to pop up and bloom . Then the next season trim the bloomed branched down to a convenient sable size to keep it low enough to pic blooms each year. By alternating the multiple stems then the shrub is kept to a small size to manage. Gardenias and camellias are both shrubs with lots of small limbs and branches to alternate trimming . Consistent ttrimming , which to trim or leave for next seasons blooms is key. I keep my camellias trimmed to 4 and 1/2 feet for over 20 years. Has always bloomed yearly.

I'm sure they are lovely, Bea!

An update. I declare full recovery.