Single stem Mock oranges

by Babak
(Montreal, Canada)

Hi Doug,

I have two, 30 year old, mock oranges; one has single flowers the other two.

The single flowered one doesn’t look like a typical bush at all. It has a 7 feet tall wood stem, with a 1-inch circumference.
There have been no new shoots for the past 3 years; it has few leaves and few flowers, each year.

Last yea, I made a mistake of cutting the new shoots of the other one by mistake. So it’s starting to develop a single stem too, but no sign of new shoots as it is full of flowers now.

Is it a good idea to cut off the old stem off, to stimulate new shoots or do you have any other recommendations?

Thanks,


Doug says he's whack them to the ground to get them to start throwing new shoots. Do it next spring after you spend this summer/fall feeding them and making sure they're stress-free and growing strongly this year so they'll pump out a lot of shoots next year.