the term you are looking for is: rejuvenation pruning ... i have no experience with this plant.. so i googled it for you ... it does not involve what you are thinking ... most plant have dormant buds.. that will trigger when a large branch is cut.. but it might take half the summer... but the key is usually that you want this to happen low to the ground... as you dont want a whole new bush.. at height... the stub left.. will eventually fail ... unless you are really thorough with followup pruning ... hit the link.. while you are waiting for specific replies... all that.. or the common rules of shrub pruning dont apply to this plant.. and i will be chastised mercilessly .... ken Here is a link that might be useful: link

If you have a limited amount and don't wish to expend it at this time, there are, I think, reasons to not apply it in the fall but do it in the spring when it can stimulate new growth by improving the soil. Compost spread over a lawn 1"...can do wonders for the new grass coming and for any overseeding you have in mind. In this case, it can replace the use of large amounts of nitrogen based fertilizer. But...true, it is not to be thought a fertilizer. If you have lots to spare and wish to give to your gardens and whathaveya now it certainly cant but help. If, however, your pile will not replenish what you wish to do in the spring, then hold off and use it more wisely. As for mulching, if you have need to keep the soil temperature up--if you have recently planted new plantings, then there is cause to lay it down now. Other mulches though might be considered instead. We like giving our extensive lawns the treatment in spring to rejuvenate it and help correct what winter has done. Our gardens still get their fair share because we have let the pile work until it cant work anymore because of the drop in temperature.

For best blooming, Michelia alba needs full sun, but here in California we have low humidity and the leaves will show burns all over until they are mature and can shade themselves. You can see the length of the internodes (stem between leaves) is much shorter in the second photo, an indication of strong light. Eastern exposure is a good call. M. alba is also a heavy feeder. One fertilization recipe I learned from a professional grower is 4 tablespoon of fish emulsion and one tablespoon of 20-20-20 mixed in 5 gallons of water. Use that almost everytime you water during the warm months. Once a month stop feeding and do a flush with lots of water to get rid of accumulated salts. M. alba can go into a vegetative growth pattern especially when it is young. One way to stop this is to strip off some leaves at strategic times. Early in season (Feb/Mar) you can strip off most of the leaves except a few at branch tips(In some years, light frost will do that for you automatically). In August, you can remove half of the leaves after the first flush of flowers. In early winter before the tree goes dormant, maybe 1/3 of the leaves can be removed. This regime above is practised by Chinese farmers who raise M. alba for tea scenting. It is geared toward maximum flower production but it is labor intensive. Home gardeners usually do not need to bother. As the tree mature, it will bloom steadily and there will be more than enough flowers.

Spade, You sound like you have a scientific background, so I doubt that you are wrong. Strangepeeps: PEPPERS/TOMATOES: There are anecotal reports from folks indicating that they believe clipping off the cotyledons when repotting tomato plants into a deeper pot stimulates growth. The anecdotal reports also indicate that, if you repot your seedlings from one container to another and if you clip off some of the true leaves at that time AND plant deep, you'll get great root growth and topgrowth as well. The question is, does it work? One method of doing this [deeper repotting combined with pinching off leaves (some, not all leaves)] was described in Jeff Cox's wonderful book "Jeff Cox's 100 Greatest Garden Ideas" and is idea #85 "Plant Deep To Reap a Heap of Tomatoes". I tried it for several years and did get very healthy, very vigorous transplants. However, I couldn't tell that I got either earlier tomatoes or larger harvests overall, so I stopped doing it. Both last year and this year I started seeds in peat pellets, pricked them out and potted them up to styrofoam cups once, and they are about ready to do into the ground. The plants look just as good, though slightly smaller, than when I followed Jeff Cox's plan of potting up three times to successively larger containers. I haven't done it with anything other than tomatoes. FRUIT TREES: Like Spade, I don't think picking blossoms off fruit trees is beneficial. My fruit trees always set way more fruit than they can successfully carry to maturity so I have to thin them out once the flowers have fallen and the fruit are small but visable. If you are removing blossoms before you get fruit set, you may inadvertently remove too many flowers that would set fruit and leave too many that weren't pollinated and didn't set fruit. In general, I'm not crazy about attempting to manipulate plants, especially trees. Just let them grow at a natural rate and don't overfeed or overwater and they will grow and develop and perform as Mother Nature intended. MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI: I am too tired to think and talk about this one tonight, but I think maybe Randy is doing something with it. I'll try to remember it and post it tomorrow if I can find the old thread. Do I think it probably works? Yes. Have I tried it? No. Dawn