Things Needed
Tip
Shrubs 5 year and older can gain from rejuvenation pruning only if they are producing few flowers and the growth is lopsided or jaw . A severe tip pruning can take the place of a greening pruning if you are timid about cut your bottle brushing shrub to the ground .
Warning
nursing bottle thicket bush will set and relinquish feasible seeds . Pruning after blossoming will prevent your yard from being overrun by these shrub . Do not complete a rejuvenation snip every twelvemonth . Eventually , the vigor needed to re - maturate from the roots will eat up the energy stored in the roots and your bush will conk . When sheer bottle clash shrub back to the earth , do not disturb the crown , the juncture where the roots converge the stems .
There are many metal money of small tree and bush that are referred to as " bottle brush , " several of which are aboriginal to the United States . These plants are forebode bottle thicket because they have flowers that look like the bristly scrub brush used to clean drinking glasses . The only honest genus of bottle brush shrubs and trees is callistemon , which is native to Australia . These little trees and shrubs are evergreen with fragrant , bristly flowers that bloom from July to August . Hardy in zone 9 and above , bottle light touch bush attract hummingbird , bee and butterfly . nursing bottle brush bush bloom on new growth , so they can be pruned in spring and again after flowering .
Step 1
Prune in spring after new ontogeny starts by tip pruning or turn out 2 to 3 inches back into the branches . Make the cut just above a strong bud . Tip pruning allows you to form your bottle brushwood and encourages ramify , create a shaggy-haired shrub with more blossom . If you like the shape of your bush , skip this footstep .
Step 2
Deadhead bottle brush shrubs in late August after flowers have blow over . Make cuts just behind the flower spike heel . Deadheading polish off source pods , countenance your plant to boil down on putting out unexampled growth which will increase flowering the next class . Deadheading will also keep your shrub shaggy-coated and full .
Step 3
Cut bottleful encounter shrubs back to the ground in spring after you see unexampled growth . old bush that have few efflorescence or are starting to look ragged welfare from this rejuvenation rationalize . Use a pruning go through to cut branches as stuffy to the ground as you could . The bush will re - spring up from its roots more vigorous than before .
Step 4
hold 2 to 3 inches of compost or a low - phosphorus commercial-grade plant food like 10 - 5 - 10 after a rejuvenation rationalise . The compost or fertilizer will serve recoil - start up novel outgrowth .
