52 THE BOOK OF TOPIARY 



before the severe frosts of winter set in. When the 

 trees are of a large size a thing that is generally the 

 case in old gardens scaffolding of some sort will be 

 necessary, and for this purpose there is nothing better 

 than trestles made to close up into as little space as 

 possible, for the double purpose of storing them away in 

 winter or at any time they are not required for use, and 

 for the sake of convenience in carrying them about the 

 garden. The trestles should be made in at least three 

 different sizes, two of each size, or more if necessary. 

 These, with the aid of a single plank laid across two 

 equal sized trestles, will generally suffice for the work. 

 Of course, the plank that is used must be strong enough 

 to carry a man, and wide enough to give him plenty of 

 standing room. 



If the trees are old and practically perfected in shape, 

 the work of clipping is not such a difficult matter as 

 when the trees are in course of training. But it is 

 usually the case that although many of the trees are old 

 there are young ones coming on that have to be shaped. 

 In the case of old trees, as a general rule, all that is 

 required is to take off the year's growth ; clipping back 

 to the old growth of the previous year. 



Hard clipping of old trees is a practice that should to 

 a certain extent be carried out, unless it is desired to 

 enlarge the size of the tree. If this is the case, from 

 one inch and a half to two inches of the year's growth 

 should be left on, but not more. 



Altering the shape of old trees is a thing that should 

 be avoided as far as possible, especially if the trees are 

 well shaped and in a healthy condition. It sometimes 

 happens that one or more trees in the garden may have 

 been allowed through careless management or some 

 other cause to grow out of shape ; or perhaps an old 

 tree may be obscuring the view in some way or other. 

 In the case of such a thing happening, it will be 



