PRUNING 



BY F. L. MULFORD 



lY'OW that the time of year is at hand when much of 

 *" the pruning of ornamental plants is timely, the ends 

 to be achieved by it should be considered. 



The purposes of pruning are to remove dead wood, to 

 reduce the top in order to offset root mutilation, to control 

 the form of the plant, to affect the quantity and quality 

 of bloom, and to remove flowers. Because of lack of un- 

 derstanding of the purposes of pruning much of the 

 work that passes under this name is mere plant cutting 

 without any comprehension of the results that are likely 

 to follow. For this reason the knife and pruning shears 

 and especially the saw, should never be used on living 

 plants without knowing the probable result. 



Dead wood should be removed whenever it is discov- 

 ered, as the sooner it is taken off the sooner the healing 

 of the wound may begin. There is a partial exception to 

 this, however, with plants that may seem to have been se- 

 verely injured by winter killing or other unusual condi- 

 tions, when ample time should be allowed to see how far 

 the plant may be able to overcome the apparent injury 

 before cutting is begun. This holds after transplanting 

 also. How long it should be before pruning is done under 

 these conditions is largely a matter of experience and no 

 ru'.es can be laid down for it, but six weeks or two months 

 after the same kind of plants are well started is not too 

 long to wait. New leaf buds are formed on most plants 

 after others are killed, unless the vitality is too much 

 reduced, but this requires different times for different 

 plants, therefore no rule of procedure can be given. A 



newly planted ginkgo tree 

 has been known to stand a 

 whole season without put- 

 ting out a single leaf and yet 

 the next year it started off 

 and grew as its neighbors. 



Transplanting of deciduous 

 plants as it is usually done, 

 results in root pruning and 

 a complete removal of the 

 roots from the soil. In re- 

 planting it is impossible to at 



once re-establish as close a connection of the roots with 

 the soil as existed before. For this combined reason it is 

 usually desirable at the time of transplanting to remove 

 enough of the top to reduce the number of leaf buds to 

 correspond with the reduced efficiency of the root system. 

 With some of the shade trees this may require the re- 

 moval of a half or three-fourths of the leaf buds, but 

 with many of the shrubs if carefully dug and handled 

 it may not be necessary to remove hardly any of the top. 

 With evergreen plants that are transplanted with a ball 

 of earth, little root pruning occurs, and if well done no 



BEFORE AND AFTER 

 This is a hybrid tea rose (Radiance) before pruning and the 

 same bush after proper pruning for individual blooms. It would 

 have been better to cut the left-hand shoot even shorter. 



THE RESULT OF PRUNING FOR INDIVIDUAL BLOOMS 

 This is the same Radiance rose, two months later. Two beautiful 

 blooms have been cut from the plant already, the remaining stubs, 

 about one inch long, being hidden under the foliage. 



loosening of the contact of the roots with the soil, there- 

 fore, no pruning of the tops is necessary. And, further, 

 because of the character of the growth many evergreens 

 would be ruined by pruning. 



Judging by the way many trees and shrubs are pruned 

 there is a widespread lack of understanding of the func- 

 tion of pruning as it relates to the form of plants. An 

 understanding of this relationship is fundamental not 

 only to pruning, but also to the use of plants in orna- 

 mental planting. 



All landscape planting may be divided into formal and 

 informal, which are, however, sometimes rather closely 

 combined. In informal plantings, plants are encouraged 

 to develop in as nearly their natural form as possible, 

 while in formal plantings either formal plants are used or 

 more informal ones may be sheared or trimmed into for- 



