A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Plants and Flowers Forum how & when to prune into tree form

i get really confused on how to trim things into tree form. I have a few things that i bought...and want them all to grow into a tree form. rhododenderons, camellias, & jane magnolia. the jane magnilia already bloomed this year and is under 2 feet tall. it is currently full of green leaves. the magnillias are about 1 foot tall...and look like they may not bloom. if they do, it will be in the summer i guess. they havent grown hardly at all since i planted them 3 or 4 months ago. i bought 2 rhododenderon plants...about 8 inches tall. one bloomed and one didnt. looks like they both are starting new growth now after the bloom of one. (new bright green leaves forming)
all of these are newly plantes ( 3 months or so) but i dont want to skip the step on getting them trimmed into tree form. I dont understand what "pinking off" means...or any of the other pruning lingo. I'm TOTALLY NEW at gardening. PLEASE HELP!!!! my dream is to have a lovely garden. but I'm a beginner.

I've never heard the term "pinking off", so I can't help you with that. I can tell you that when you are trying to get a plant to grow as a tree, you have to remove the bottom branches. Never remove more than 1/3 of any plants branches in one year. As the plants get taller you can remove a few more bottom branches until it looks like you want. Most of the shrubs you mentioned are slow growers, so it may take you a few years to get them the way you want them.