Figure 8. Windbreak, shade trees, and hedge of black locust, showing to what extent the trees in 

 the hedge have been kept down by pruning. 



grown from two common barberry plants, Berberis vulgaris atropurpurea, and 

 B. thunbergii. The purple barberry, B. vulgaris, has purple foliage and the 

 other dark green. B. thunbergii is frequently quite attractive in winter owing 

 to a reddish color resulting from many small red berries which it produces. 

 These hedges do not respond to frequent heavy pruning as well as the privets 

 and are less desirable. 



Privet makes a nice rough hedge when not pruned, but is usually trained 

 into rectangular shape by frequent pruning. It is easily propagated by cuttings. 

 Pruning should begin by cutting back severely the first or second year to cause 

 the plants to spread out and send up a large number of shoots from near the 

 ground. 



Large hedges are valuable for screens. When so used, they form a part 

 of the background for the yard and fill an important place in the general 

 scheme of decoration about the buildings. Two very desirable plants for this 

 purpose are Russian oleaster, Elaeagnus angustifolia, and Russian golden willow, 

 Salix sp.. Figure 2. 



Hedges of this nature cannot be made to serve the purpose of a fence. 

 When they are placed near a corral, a substantial fence should be built at 

 sufficient distance to prevent injury to the trees by stock. Large hedges 

 require pruning, but usually at less frequent intervals than the smaller types. 



All details of operations and care in planting, treated under the discussion 

 of windbreaks, is applicable to hedges and ornamentals. 



The most successful method of starting hedges is to use two parallel rows 

 with the plants in the second row located opposite the spaces in the first. 

 The distance between rows should be influenced by the width of hedge desired. 

 Plants are usually placed 12 inches apart with the same distance between the 

 rows. 



16 



