albizia julibrissin – reduce blossom
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Is there a way to reduce the growth of flowers? The tree creates so much dirt all around the tree that it overshadow the beauty of the tree. I cant stand it anymore.
Hi Dana!
That sure is an uncommon question… Usually it’s the other way around: not enough flowers! But as someone who has had to sweep sidewalks under prolific winter camelias I totally get your point.
Some might recommend pure-nitrogen fertilizer since this favors leaves instead of flowers, but I’d advise against it: the moment nitrogen evens out in the soil, it’ll backfire and you’ll have even more flowers than ever before!
What I’d do is shrink the tree down to a more manageable size, one that won’t cover as much ground area. You can do this in fall, pruning at junctions of branches and retaining the shorter of the two.
If you don’t want to make the tree smaller, then at least make it less dense. This is called thinning. Basically remove 1 in three or 1 in 4 branches, same technique as above but this time your goal isn’t to shrink the tree, but to make it more “see-through”.
Last of all, you know when the tree tends to bloom. Prune it just before this date, this’ll remove flower buds and greatly reduce the blooming. But it’ll only work for a month perhaps. After that, new flowers will form but there won’t be as many.
I’m not sure there are any natural ways of stopping the blooming.
Maybe someone will be interested in gathering the spent flowers? As you noticed, it turns into truly excellent soil for seedlings and potting.
Nature & Garden moderator.
Message me if you have any questions, I’ll be glad to help out!
“Winter reveals the strength inside… of those who dare go out!”
Thanks for the thorough answer.
The only plus of the tree in my eyes at this point is the fact that it provides good shade as we have a lot of direct sun. So im not sure about shrinking it or removing dense, though i will try it.
Never thought someone will want to take the fallen flowers…Well, i got a deal to get my neighbor’s lawn trimmings, it works wonders in my veggie patch. I don’t mow the lawn for them, though 🤪 so you might have to do a little sweeping…
Nature & Garden moderator.
Message me if you have any questions, I’ll be glad to help out!
“Winter reveals the strength inside… of those who dare go out!”
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