they should never need fertilizer ... especially noting one of them grew 14 feet in 3 years ... obviously.. your soil is fine w/o fert..

they are trees/shrubs... not children.. they dont need to be fed ...

that said.. if you want multiple leaders.. then cut them to near the ground.. and let multiple shoots grow ... who's in charge of these tings anyway ... lol ...

pix would sure help understand.. if there are any wrong presumption ....

and.. are you positive on the ID???? .. who did you get them from ... there are some providers that might not be trusted ...

ken

theyare definitely bottle brush buckeyes the more mature one came from a local nursery. i have bee hives behind there greenhouses. the buckeye had been presumed dead & i found it in the back to be discarded the following year & it was sprouting away. this is the one with multiple stems coming fron the ground. the others came mail order & some are blooming now & have the bottle brush blooms. 2 of the mail order bushes are 4-5' with some branching. one is a single stem & is 14" ( not 14' ) the others fall somewhere in between. if cutting them close to the ground promotes multiple stems i'll try that. i assume that the trimming should wait til the fall?i'm having a problem with posting multiple photos. this is the 14"er

this is the nursery find

this is 2 shrubs

yet another

& the last one. these were all planted ( except for the nursery find ) at the same time & have received equal conditions & treatment

Is that nursery find some sort of dwarf cultivar? If not, it will soon eat that corner. My BBB is about 10 feet in diameter and about 10-12 years old. I do recall it taking about 4-5 years for my deep shade, on a slope plant to start suckering.

tj

In general you can make things bushier by pruning out any dominant leader. That will cause the shrub to put out multiple replacements.