Bottle Tree: January 2025 maintenance

In November I noted the Bottle Tree was growing well but the main branches were too long. So, I cut them back, one much shorter than the other. This was a mistake which I decided to fix.

This profile would be ok in a different tree, but the bottle tree grows with a thick trunk quickly blending into a mass of leaves. The left trunk is too long to support that.

I’m actually surprised this has grown so much in less than two months.

Snips happened.

Bottle Tree: January 2025 maintenance — In addition to cutting the left branch is roughly the same height as the right, I’m watching the inward facing buds on the right trunk, and limiting the height of new buds.

The goal is to build a thick, low canopy. My current image has main trunk → two fork → current layer of growth → branching to leaves. This should be about double the height of the trunk.

There’s also a repot coming at some stage, which I think will need to be a pretty deep pot – the original planting had quite a deep root, which I imagine has only grown since. I don’t think I currently have a suitable pot.