HOW TO PRUNE YOUR SHRUBS 



Making Old Shrubs Young 



Sometimes through neglect a shrub becomes choked with 

 dead branches and suckers so that it is a pathetic object in 

 winter and blooms but faintly at its appointed time. In this 

 case the only thing possible is to cut it down, leaving only four 

 or five of the most promising sucker-like shoots. Cut out the 

 old branches, almost down to the soil, until you reach sound 

 wood. Paint the cuts. Cut back the 

 young shoots left and they will quit 

 their lank, sucker-like habit, branch 

 out and make the bush into a credit- 

 able shrub. This treatment is shown 

 in the illustration. 



Where the shrub or small tree is in 

 fairly sound condition it is enough to 

 cut out interfering branches, suckers, 

 dead wood, and those branches that 

 spoil the natural outline by growing 

 inward or at cross-purposes. Some- 

 times, to make it symmetrical, the top should be reduced, but 

 don't cut it off squarely. Make the cuts just above an outward 

 branch. 



Then (since the new growth pushes out from the "eye" 

 or branch just below the cut), if terminal "eye" be on the 

 outside, the shrub will branch outward, increasing the flower- 

 ing surface. Cutting so that the shrub branched inward was 

 one cause of the troubles of the unfortunate forsythia illustrated 

 above. It should be cut to the dark branches. 

 The Rest-Cure for Shrubs 



Winter-Killed Shrubs.— When shrubs have been apparently 

 injured by the winter, scrape the bark slightly with thumb 



125 



Shrub crowded with in- 

 growing branches. 



