PRUNING STREET TREES. 



in color ; fine in itself as a variety, but 

 never producing such immense flower- 

 heads as the Grandiflora. 



H.Pekinensis — This varietycame to us 

 from France ; it is not yet widely dis 

 tributed. In general habit of growth 

 it resembles the paniculatas, the flower- 

 heads are nearly flat instead of conical, 

 the individual florets are white and ex- 

 ceedingly large, but the panicle is rather 

 open and loose, not as preposessing as 

 it might be. 



H. qut-rcifolia the Oak-leaved Hydran- 

 gea, is a most beautiful shrub for foliage 

 effects, but will not put up with the 

 tumbles that the mercury sometimes 

 takes here in Ontario. At New York 

 and southward, however, it grows in all 

 its beauty. 



For this climate H. paniculata graitdi 

 flora is decidedly our favorite ; given a 

 well enriched spot, and proper pruning, 

 it will satisfy the most exacting. 



Webster Bros. 



PRUNING STREET TREES. 



n Constant Reader, in last number of 

 /l\\ Horticulturist asks when to 

 illi prune street trees, and as this is a 

 subject I feel very much interest in, and I 

 have been experimenting in that line for 

 25 or more years, I have found to my cost 

 that pruning in winter when the wood is 

 frozen is a splendid way to destroy a 

 good orchard. A neighbor of mine 

 whose orchard had been neglected for 

 several years, got a man who professes 

 to be an expert in that line to prune his 

 orchard in January, and he did prune, 

 cutting large as well as small limbs and 

 branches, and the proprietor has never 

 had even a fair crop of fruit since. Be- 

 sides, about 40 out of 100 trees died 

 outright inside of three years. I find 

 invariably that all deciduous trees do 

 better when pruned in spring, but trees 

 like the Maple and Birch, Basswood, 

 Walnut and such varieties as flow sap 

 rapidly, should be pruned about the 

 time the leaf is coming out, after the sap 

 is up. Plums and Cherries should be 

 pruned about the first of April ; Apples 

 and Pears a month later, and the wounds 

 will heal sooner than if pruned at any 

 other time of the year. Besides, if ap- 

 ples are pruned before growth starts, a 

 Is 'g'; number of shoots start out where 



the branch was removed. When I speak 

 of pruning I mean the removing of 

 branches that are one inch and over in 

 diameter. Every Maple or other street 

 tree should be" regularly pruned till a 

 trunk is obtained from 10 to 12 feet 

 from the ground, when the top may be 

 allowed to form. When a row of such 

 kept trees appear on a street they are a 

 " thing of beauty and a joy forever " to 

 every passer by, who enjoys the beauty 

 of Nature and Art combined. My ex- 

 perience is that nearly all fruit trees are 

 allowed to form branches too near the 

 ground, and the only advantage seems 

 to be that the fruit can be gathered 

 easier ; but I question if that is a suffi- 

 cient reason to allow trees to be headed 

 low thereby preventing any cultivation 

 of the soil, which to my mind is of far 

 more importance than the trouble of 

 going up a step-ladder to gather the 

 fruit. My advice to growers of orna- 

 mental or other trees is to prune regu- 

 larly every season, and you will never 

 have a large limb to remove ; and by 

 pruning after the growth starts, no injury 

 from loss of sap will appear. 



R 1-. Hui;(;.\RD. 



Whitby. 



238 



