APRIL NOTES FOR LAWN, FLOWER, VEGETABLE AND 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



WORK ON LAWN -PRUNING SHRUBS-HARDY ROSES 



—ROSE THRIP— FLOWER GARDEN— SEED SAVING— 



'vegetables — ASPARAGUS — THE FRUIT GARDEN. 



BY 



WM. HUNT, 



SUPT. GREENHOUSES, O. A. C , GUELPH. 



LAWN PRUNING.— The first real 

 spring work on the lawn will be 

 such pruning of flowering shrubs 

 and roses as may be considered necessary, 

 with one or two exceptions all the 

 pruning required by the smaller growing 

 lawn shrubs, such as spirea, deutzia, 

 weigelia, forsythia, etc., will consist of 

 merely thinning out the most prominent 

 branches so as to produce a natural, 

 and at the same time a symmetrica] look- 

 ing shrub. Do not clip or shear off the 

 young tips of growth, as is often done in the 

 spring as well as later on in the summer. 

 This young growth is the flowering wood of 

 the present season, as a rule, and should not 

 be trimmed off. One exception to this style 

 of pruning, however, is that of pruning the 



different varieties of lawn or hardy hydran- 

 geas. With these latter the pruning should 

 be severe, if it was not done late last autumn 

 or in early winter. (I prefer the latter time 

 for pruning hardy hydrangeas.) If not al- 

 ready done, prune the young shoots of these 

 plants back to within three or four inches of 

 the base of the young growth, leaving only 

 three or four buds. By pruning severely 

 in this way, and by cutting out altogether the 

 small weak shoots on the plant, larger pani- 

 cles of bloom will be the reward for this se- 

 vere pruning. As the hydrangea panicu- 

 lata grandiflora is one of the plants for 

 distribution to members this spring, I might 

 add that these plants, if the young growth 

 is tinpruned when received, would be very 

 much benefitted by having the strongest 



