326 Garden Topics. 



Shruhs for the Lawn nnd Doorynrd, Care Necessary. 



The art (for it is an art) of pruning and keeping shrubs in neat shape is yet to be 

 learnedby most of the ruralists of the country. We have known of cases of people so 

 stupidly ignorant that they pruned spirjxja, deutzia, dwarf almond, before the spring 

 growth commences, and then wondered why they never got a blossom. They had 

 not yet learned, or at least observed, that the blossoms are borne almost entirely 

 upon the last year's wood before the coming of the leaves. The best way of growing 

 shrubs now-a-days is in groups or well planted masses, thus giving a mutual pro- 

 tection, and effective display. But, as The Country Gentleman observes : 



When they are grown as isolated plants in front door-yards, it is necessaiy to make 

 them hold their heads up, and look trim and tidy. Every day we see examples of 

 such bushes tied up in compact bunjhes, with a stake to secure greater uprightness; 

 but towards April it is common to see stake and all dangling helplessly over. Then 

 they are straightened by re-setting the stake, and by cropping the disheveled tops 

 by barber-ous pruning shears or knife. 



This treatment is senseless. It directly defeats the main object, which we suppose 

 to be the securing of a plant of neat figure, robed in luxuriant leaves, and brightened 

 with well-expanded flowers. For it is obvious that not one of these crowded shoots 

 can open its leaves to the light, and as they were similarly suffocated last summer, 

 they have nothing laid up — no means or substance from which to produce good 

 flowers this year, even if there were room to display them. Next summer they will, 

 of course, be barren too, if the leaves are given no room to turn. 



But the bush will do something, so long as it has roots safe and sound, and as it 

 can do nothing else well, it will go back to the primitive course of throwing up fresh 

 sprouts from the ground, thus adding to and aggravating the crowded condition above. 



The right treatment in such a case is to use a strong, narrow knife, or saw, or 

 sharp pointed pruning shears, such as French gardeners use, or a suitable chisel 

 and mallet, and cut out all the old exhausted shoots, and all the young ones that are 

 weak or unripe, close at the surface wherever possible, or beneath it, for neatness 

 sake, leaving only those which have been first selected as the best and the best placed. 

 Separate these by tying or spreading, using a light hoop, if necessary, to secure a 

 well-balanced and evenly distributed figure, with full room around each shoot for its 

 flowering branchlets and leaves, and full access of light and free air thronghout. If 

 a stake seems needful, it will not look amiss, provided it is set erect and centrally, 

 even although it may be thick and tall. In that position it may be even taller than 

 the shoots. The shoots left to bloom should not be shortened further than to make 

 ill-turned, unsymmetrical branchlets, or slender ones incapable of bloom. 



If this care is supplemented by a trifling attention, in May or June, to pinch out 

 the sprouts that will appear numerously then, leaving only the suitably placed few 

 that are wanted to fill vacancies, or to renew good blooming canes, according to the 

 nature of the plant, the fullest rewards of successful training will be attained. Some 

 plants make a rank growth from the tops in August or September, and in their case 

 a pinching of the ends of wild or wanton shoots is advisable. 



Climbing roses, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, etc., class under the above 

 rule of treatment. 



