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HENDERSON'S HANDBOOK OF PLANTS 



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flowers or fruit borne upon them would be 

 greatly superior to those upon the unpruned 

 stem. Any one can readily be convinced of 

 the utility of pruning by taking two rose 

 bushes of equal size, leaving one without any 

 pruning to take care of itself, and each spring 

 cutting the other back severely, pruning 

 away one-third or one-half of the wood that 

 was formed the previous season. The result 

 at the end of two years will be very striking. 



No general rule can be given for pruning. 

 The amateur should use his eyes, and notice 

 the habit of growth of his trees and shrubs. 

 He will find that many, like the Rose, produce 

 their flowers upon the new wood of the pres- 

 ent season, and that such plants are greatly 

 benefited by cutting back more or less each 

 spring. But there are other plants for which 

 this treatment will not answer. If we examine 

 a Horse-chestnut tree, or a Lilac bush, and 

 many other, we shall find that the flowers 

 come from the large buds that are formed on 

 the end of last season's growth, and to cut 

 back such plants would be to remove all the 

 flower buds. With shrubs of this kind, all 

 that need be done is to thin out the branches 

 where they are too crowded. These examples 

 will warn the novice against indiscriminate 

 pruning ; and unless, as he stands before his 

 shrub or tree, knife in hand, he knows why 

 he is to prune, and how, let him put his knife 

 in his pocket, and give the plant the benefit 

 of the doubt. While, under the different fruits, 

 we can give directions foi the particular 

 pruning required by each, the proper method 

 of treating a miscellaneous collection of orna- 

 mental shrubs and trees can only be learned 

 by observation. 



The term pruning is generally applied to the 

 cutting away, in whole or in part, of the 

 ripened wood ; but much pruning may be 

 done by the use of the thumb and finger. 

 This is termed pinching, and is practiced upon 

 young shoots at the growing season, while 

 they are yet soft. This most useful form of 

 pruning allows us to control the form of a 

 plant with the greatest ease, and is applied 

 not only to soft-wooded plants, but to trees 

 and shrubs, and may be so performed on these 

 as to render nearly, if not quite, all pruning 

 of ripened wood unnecessary. When soft- 

 wooded plants, such as Chrysanthemums, 

 Geraniums, or Coleus, are planted out or 

 grown in pots, and left to themselves, most 

 kinds will grow tall and straggling; but if 

 judiciously " pinched back," as it is called 

 (that is, the top of the strongest shoots 

 pinched out), the plants can be shaped into a 

 bushy, rounded form at will. If a vigorous 

 shoot has its end or " growing point " pinched 

 out it will cease to elongate, but will throw 

 out branches below, the growth of which may 

 be controlled in the same manner. The 

 Blackberry illustrates the utility of this kind 

 of pruning. The rampant growing shoot 

 which springs up from the root will, if left to 

 itself, make a long cane six or eight feet high, 

 and with a very few branches near the top. 

 If, when this shoot has reached four, or at 

 most five feet, its end be pinched off, it will 

 then throw out numerous branches ; and if the 

 upper branches, when they reach the length 

 of eighteen inches, be "stopped" (as it is 

 called), in a similar manner, by pinching, the 

 growth will be directed to the lower ones, and 



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by the end of the season, instead of a long 

 unmanageable wand, there will be a well- 

 branched bush, which will bear its fruit all 

 within reach. The grower of plants in pots 

 is usually afraid to remove even a single inch 

 of the stem, and the result is usually a lot of 

 " leggy " specimens not worth the care that 

 is otherwise bestowed upon them. Plants 

 may be prevented from ever reaching this 

 condition, if their growth be properly con- 

 trolled by pinching ; but if they have once 

 reached it, they should be cut back severely, 

 and a compact, bushy form obtained from 

 the new shoots which will soon start. I 

 may state here, however, that if it becomes 

 necessary to cut back a plant in full leaf, care 

 must be taken to withhold water until it again 

 throws out shoots below, for the reason that, 

 being robbed of the foliage and shoots that 

 elaborated the top, an excess of moisture given 

 to the roots, which have now no work to do, 

 will gorge and destroy them. 



When judiciously pruned, a shrub or tree 

 can be kept at almost any size, or changed to 

 almost any form ; and, besides this, a tree or 

 shrub can be made much more productive of 

 fruit or flowers. On the other hand, improper 

 pruning will not only weaken the vigor of a 

 plant, but may destroy all its beauty of out- 

 line, and at the same time hinder the produc- 

 tion of flowers and fruit. 



If we prune for the purpose of increasing 

 the flowers of a shrub or tree, we must prune 

 different species and varieties at different 

 seasons of the year ; but surplus wood and 

 suckers can always be thinned out during the 

 summer season, and wounds which are cut 

 clean in midsummer will heal more quickly 

 than those made in frosty weather. Maples, 

 Birches, Yellow-woods, and many other trees 

 bleed copiously when their branches are cut 

 in the spring, but they heal over more quickly 

 if pruned while in full leaf. Again, shrubs 

 which bloom on wood made the previous year, 

 of which the early Spirceas, Forsythias, Honey- 

 suckles, Viburnums, Syringas, Philadelphia, 

 and Deuteias, are examples, should receive 

 their chief pruning soon after the flowers 

 have fallen. This will encourage a growth of 

 young wood with flower-buds for the following 

 year. Of course, when these shrubs are cut 

 back in early spring before flowering, the 

 flower-buds are sacrificed. On the other 

 hand, shrubs like Hydrangea paniculata, Des- 

 modium penduliflorum, Hibiscus Syriacus, and 

 others, which flower on the new growth, 

 bloom more abundantly when cut back 

 severely in early spring. But even in this 

 case the surplus wood should be thinned out 

 during the summer. 



With anything like an extensive collection 

 of shrubs constant attention must be given to 

 pruning during the whole growing season, 

 and this is especially true where coarse-grow- 

 ing shrubs and those of delicate habit are 

 planted together. If this is neglected the less 

 robust plants will soon be smothered out by 

 their vigorous neighbors. Many shrubs are 

 pruned too much. If a healthy young plant 

 is carefully pruned at the outset, allowed 

 plenty of room, with all the cross branches 

 cutaway to admit light and air, and all the old 

 flowering wood shortened in after bloom and 

 the over-strong shoots stopped, at midsum- 

 mer, it will not only retain all its natural 



