92 THE LITTLE GARDEN 



it should. In consequence, long slender boughs are thrown out 

 on the free side, and these need careful shortening occasionally. 

 With what pleasm-e, then, do I cut here and there a twig of those 

 handsome leaves, so thinly and gracefully set along the boughs, 

 and how delighted I am that this tree must be pruned, since, from 

 an act of necessity, I secure the most beautiful possible foliage for 

 my Gladiolus primulinus hybrids, or for my own bright namesake 

 in that family. 



Tvmnng to shrubs, because f orsythia, spirea, lilac, bush honey- 

 suckle, philadelphus,weigela, viburnum, all flower on the wood of 

 the previous year, great care should be taken to prune them 

 neither in spring nor autumn, but only after they have bloomed. 

 This is easy. The seeding flower-panicles, or single flowers, mark 

 those branches which have to be cut away. But the true pruning 

 for such things, the best pruning for a double result, is to use as 

 many flowering branches as possible while the shrub is in full 

 beauty with flowers. Thus wholesome cutting is accomplished 

 and the pleasure joined to it of flowers for your rooms, or of giv- 

 ing them to others. 



Besides this flower-cutting or culling of upper branches, the 

 taking out of weak and encumbering ones should be remembered 

 — of those that crowd the central stems of a spirea or bush honey- 

 suckle toward the ground. This must be done with restraint, 

 however. Do not unclothe a good shrub as you prune it. Keep its 

 good general appearance always in mind, its appearance with re- 

 gard to neighboring shrubs, trees, or flowers, to its background, 

 and to inanimate objects near. This advice sounds complicated; 

 but these things, if considered little by little by the yoimg or be- 

 ginning gardener, become like breathing to him as the years go 

 by in his garden. It is all summed up again in the significant 

 word, relate. 



With such lovely things as Hydrangea arhorescens (I do not 



