THE 





Gardeners' Monthly 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AMD RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MKEHAN. 



Volume XXVII. 



JUNE, 1885. 



Number 318. 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



Some people advocate the pruning of ornamental 

 trees in summer when they require it, for the reason 

 that the wound seems to heal over without any 

 injury to the tree. This is in a great measure 

 correct. When large branches are cut in the spring 

 the moisture oozes from the wound, and those minute 

 funguses that prey on decayed or dead vegetation, 

 get a start where moisture exists, and the wound 

 is very soon on the high road to destruction. 

 Hollow trees come more often from such wounds 

 than from any other cause. In summer the leaves 

 take all the sap, and the exposed surface becomes 

 dry and hard. There is nothing more than a solid 

 knot over which the bark ev.entually grows and 

 entirely heals the wound. But there are counter- 

 objections. The leaves are the life of a tree. A 

 branch has to be cut close to the trunk in order to 

 heal at all, because the sap which makes the new 

 wood has to be prepared by the action of the 

 leaves. Cutting away large masses of foliage 

 weakens the vital power of trees. For instance, 

 near where we are writing a Honey Locust hedge 

 was planted about six years ago. These have 

 been annually summer pruned, as all respectable 

 hedge plants expect to be. The stems of these 

 plants are about three inches in circumference 

 now. But one in the hedge was suffered to grow 

 up as a tree. It has never been summer pruned. 



The stem is eighteen inches in circumference. 

 Any one who has noticed how hedges, annually 

 pruned, keep small stems, will understand how 

 summer pruning weakens a tree. Therefore, where 

 rapid growth is desired, summer pruning to any 

 great extent should not be practiced. But a little, 

 judiciously done, will often be a greater benefit at 

 this season than at any other, especially when some 

 good form is desirable for the specimen. We can 

 tell much better how to direct the branches of a 

 tree in the growing season than when the leaves 

 are off. There has been great progress in this 

 kind of knowledge of late years. 



In nothing has progress in gardening been 

 better indicated than in the use of the pruning 

 knife on evergreens. Up to the existence of the 

 Gardeners' Monthly, one might prune any trees 

 except evergreens. Few articles ever took the 

 public more by surprise, than our first paper show- 

 ing that pruning benefited these plants. Now it 

 is generally practiced, and it is believed to be 

 followed with more striking results than when used 

 on deciduous trees. In transplanting evergreens 

 of all kinds from the woods, the best way to save 

 their lives, is to cut them half back with a hedge 

 shears, and when any come from the nurseries 

 with bad roots, or roots which have accidentally 

 got dry, a severe cutting back will save them. 

 And then if we have an unsightly evergreen, — a 

 one sided, or sparsely clothed evergreen, — if it is 



