Should I cut these healthy plants down?

[leli]

Rural garden. It's North Facing. We have a path leading out from the back door leading to the garden which is carved out from an adjoining field. One is a huge healthy camellia and the other looks like giant buxus.

These big plants flank the end of the path as it leads to garden. They are so huge they obscure the view of the garden and fields at end of garden. A gardener friend of mine told me it would be appalling to cut them down. But I wonder if it would be better to see the open garden and fields.

Any opinions?

Do what works best for your use of the garden, no point keeping them just for the sake of it. If you don't like them/they are in the way, just get rid of them. Alternatively, you could look at pruning both if you want to keep them.

Opening up the view sounds like a great idea.

It’s a shame but I do think the garden and your view of it would be much better without them there.

I'd start with a drastic pruning (and would be tempted to whittle a topiarised shape to the ones on the LHS. I'd always try and keep happy plants, but the one in the middle needs to be much, much smaller. So I'd try cutting it right back, to see if it survives and can be maintained in smaller form. Also, of smaller, it might be moveable?

You can cut the Camellia hard back now as the flowers fade.

I’d take that camellia out completely and then see how you feel about the rest.

I wouldn't take the camellia out. That will be decades old. Prune it, but do it sympathetically, don't just hack at it. The other one you could reduce in size a bit without doing any harm.

Remember that since the garden is north-facing, these are currently acting as part of a wind break when there are cold north winds. You might find the garden a lot less sheltered without them.

Decades old and in completely the wrong place 🤷🏽‍♀️

If they are wind breaks, then they are in exactly the right place.

Agree - prune it, see what happens. If you do need a windbreak, at least it's a pretty one that is up to the job.

I's funny, your thoughts all mirror mine really. Wow, decades old camellia. The camellia loves the situation and is very happy. I feel guilty removing a healthy plant and since I'm just getting grips with the garden it's one of not many lovely plants.

BUT camellia looks tatty unless I climb on a ladder and cut off all the old blooms. I think v good idea to try topiary on the giant buxus. DH keen to try this but he is far too cack handed......I'll google topiary.

Maybe it's like cutting hair. Rather than waist length to crew cut we take it down gradually to check that's what we want to do.

Basically I love the rural outlook and want to have low growing perennials and my new greenhouse (not yet arrived) in view of the low dark garden facing kitchen.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Don't do anything in nesting season.

Nothing is nesting in the camellia or the buxus. I will look carefully through the camellia to check.

At the mo I think pruning of some sort is a good idea. It has three trunks, so it will be an odd standard but maybe rather mysterious looking.

I'm not sure in the end if I'll have the cojones to cut anything drastically because I don't like harming things that live. I'll begin with a hair cut.

I think your approach is a good one, OP

If you don't like them, get rid. I cut down a Camellia bigger than that when i moved into my house because the flowers are ugly to my eye and they make a heck of a mess when they drop off. Plus, it was directly outside my kitchen window and blocking all the light into the kitchen. I lived with it for a year or two but it just confirmed that i hated it. Do what works for you. Id take out the camellia and leave the other one as it looks to me like the camellia is the one blocking the view.

I think you should move it. My husband has done a good job of rearranging our trees and plants. They've all taken nicely in their new spots and saves what are lovely well established plants. Also think how much money that camellia would cost in the garden centre!

Honestly, I’d wait till you can get a gardener in. They can best advise you on if you can move the plants (best done in winter - if they can be moved) and they could do the major pruning / topiary for you.

Also, do you want to completely open up the garden or have a series of ‘rooms’?

Aggrrrr - don’t move in winter but when the plant is dormant and the ground not rock hard.

I'd keep the camellia but make it much smaller, It's a beautiful garden.

A beautiful plant in the wrong place is a waste. I would think differently about a tree but I wouldn't be sentimental about an old shrub.

Take the camellia out and plant a new one in a better position. They do extremely well and grow quickly so you'll have another beauty in no time. Give the buxus a good shaping and see if you like it better. If not, off with its head.

Personally I think the view with the Camellia is a lot more interesting than the view without.

Consider carefully the location of the farmland. There's so much housebuilding happening that the last place I'd buy is next to farmland. Our area is full of people howling with outrage that their "views over open farmland" are set to become "views over building site" very shortly.