Pruning- in the Flower Garden 



Getting Bigger Flowers, More Flowers, 

 and Longer Seasons of Bloom 



THE flower beds, including annuals and perennials, 

 are with few exceptions allowed to take care of 

 their own course without restraint or guidance 

 on the part of the gardener. They can, however, be 

 controlled as readily as other things, and the pruning 

 shears and the fingers can be used to great advantage. 

 There are, for instance, very few plants which cannot 

 be made to give much finer blooms by judicious pruning. 

 Dahlias, chrysanthemums, both hardy and exhibition 

 varieties, asters, and a very few others are often pruned 

 or disbudded for this purpose, but the same treatment 

 applied to many flowers, such as hardy pinks, antirr- 

 hinums (snap dragons), begonias, cosmos, heliotrope, 

 zinnias, salpiglossis, etc., will produce as marked results. 

 To get extra large flowers only a few stalks or branches 

 should be left to each plant, and only a few buds, or one, 

 to each stalk. Usually the terminal bud, or cluster 

 of buds, is the strongest, and the others should be 

 pruned off or pinched oflf before they have made such 

 development. 



With many plants, however, just the opposite treat- 

 ment is needed. If left to themselves they will shoot 

 up one strong straight stalk, bearing a few fine flowers 

 at the top, while the side shoots amount to little or 

 remain entirely undeveloped. This is especially true 

 of seedling plants of many annuals, and when they 

 have once flowered and borne seed, they are through 

 for the rest of the season, having accomplished their 

 purpose in life. Many annuals and tender perennials, 

 such as asters, snapdragons, heliotrope, cosmos, stocks, 

 petunias, marigold, etc., if the main stem of the young 

 plant is pinched or cut off before the first top buds are 

 developed, may be induced to branch freely and bear 

 many more flowers than they would otherwise. In order 

 to get as long a blooming period as possible from the 

 various annuals and perennieils, all flowers should be 



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