392 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



of the difficulty should be as carefully sought be- 

 fore resorting to pruning as is done with a sick man be- 

 fore an operation is suggested. 



The practice of cutting off the ends of large limbs of 

 trees so that the tree may put a lot of bushy sprouts and 

 make a more compact mass of foliage is bad for the tree. 

 With a silver maple it is the signing of its death warrant 

 for an early date, and a Carolina poplar is not left in a 

 much better condition. It is another case of attempting 

 to change the outline and character of the plant by prun- 

 ing and the results are always injurious to the tree. 

 Occasionally, a tree that is in an unhealthy condition 

 from root injury or restriction of the feeding area may 

 be helped by severe trimming, but even under such con- 



AN EXAMPLE OF POOR PRUNING 



There are bad stubs in the top of this Norway map'.e where the 

 ends of branches have been cut. Each of these cuts is liable to 

 start decay that will run down through the tree and destroy it. 



ditions it should be accomplished as far as possible with- 

 out leaving stubs. 



The evil effect of severe pruning is more apparent on 

 evergreen trees than on deciduous trees, for with many 

 of the coniferous evergreens the removal of the tips of the 

 branches with the foliage means the death of the whole 

 limb. When the growing ends are injured the older 

 portions usually will not form new buds nor push out 

 new growth. 



The pruning of plants for formal effects either indi- 

 vidual specimens or hedges should be frequently done so 

 that it may be only necessary to remove the small new 

 growths, thus avoiding the cutting of any large branches. 



Deciduous plants should be trimmed while dormant and 

 in addition two or three or more times during the growing 

 season, while evergreens should be trimmed just before 

 growth starts in the spring and again in midsummer. 



With flowering plants comes the additional problem of 

 so pruning as to produce the greatest mass of bloom or 

 the best possible individual blooms. For either of these 

 purposes the pruning should be done just after blossom- 

 ing, so that there will be the longest possible time for the 

 formation of flower buds for the next year. Thus, spring 

 flowering plants should be pruned in May or June, instead 

 of in March. This applies to wistaria, climbing roses, 

 lilacs, spring flowering spireas, and the whole host of 

 early flowering bushes that are now in bloom or have 

 bloomed this spring. Cutting of the flowers is often a 

 legitimate preliminary pruning, but the extent to which 

 this may be indulged depends on the character and the 

 rapidity of the growth of the plant. If flowers are cut 

 from bushes it is well to go over them carefully just after 

 the flowering season, and make sure that the cutting has 

 been done so that the bush is left in good condition. If 

 this has been ragged or has left stubs, new cuts should 

 be made, taking off the bad ends back to good limbs. 



Hybrid wichuraiana and hybrid multiflora roses, the 

 types of climbing roses usually grown in the north, bloom 

 only on shoots from wood of the previous season's 

 growth. To encourage this growth it is desirable after 

 blooming to cut out as much of the old wood as possible 

 without destroying the present season's growth. In fact, 

 roses on a fence or other low support that send up freely 

 a large number of new shoots, may have all the previous 

 season's wood removed immediately after flowering. 



Those plants that bloom in late summer can be pruned 

 any time before growth starts in the spring. With these 

 the flower buds are formed on wood of the current sea^ 

 son's growth, as rose of Sharon, hardy hydrangeas, crape 

 myrtle and trumpet vines. 



Where quality of bloom is desired there are many 

 plants in which a modification of the foregoing sugges- 

 tions will give much different results. For example, if 

 in pruning hardy hydrangeas instead of cutting out a few 

 branches and maintaining the natural form of the bush, 

 the plant should be mutilated by cutting back each branch 

 of the previous season's growth, leaving but one or two 

 eyes at the base, the resulting flower heads would be very 

 much larger. The vigor that otherwise would be spread 

 among a large number of branches and flower heads 

 would thus be concentrated on a few, resulting in the 

 larger size of the few remaining heads. In the case of 

 hydrangeas the flower heads come only on the end of each 

 branch, so that the number of flower heads is limited by 

 the number of buds left on last year's wood. 



Bush roses, like hybrid perpetuals, hybrid teas, and 

 teas, are another example. Where the bushes are left 

 almost unpruned there are a large number of compara- 

 tively small flowers. When bushes two or three or more 

 years old are cut within a foot or nine inches of the 

 ground, the stems are longer and the flowers larger. In- 

 termediate pruning gives intermediate results. Again, if 



