PRUNING ORNAMENTAL SHRUBS AND TREES 355 



the environmental factors, such as soil, climate, etc. Un- 

 less the plant be adapted to the style of training, unless a 

 sufficient number of plants be properly set, and unless 

 the necessary periodic attention be given, the hedge will 

 be a more or less gruesome eyesore. 



There is no use trying to make erect-growing species 

 of plants develop flat-topped hedges nor in trying to force 

 plants that normally spread to adopt an erect style of 

 growth. The rule in all hedge growing should be to ap- 

 proach as nearly as possible the natural form of the 

 plant. To the author's way of thinking the hedge that 

 demands the least pruning attention is the one that will 

 give most pleasure. 



The Japanese barberry is most nearly ideal for a hedge 

 up to 6 or 8 feet high ; arbor vita: for those 10 to 20 feet ; 

 and Norway spruce and hemlock for taller ones. When 

 these are allowed to grow naturally they, none of them, 

 require more attention than the shortening of occasional, 

 rampant branches; but when forced to assume unnatural 

 forms they give no end of trouble, besides being un- 

 sightly. 



Unless a hedge is kept uniform and even in height, 

 thickness and development its beauty will be impaired. 

 To attain this development the plants must be set very 

 closely and be pruned intelligently several times a year — 

 once in winter and two or three times during the grow- 

 ing season. When a definite form is decided upon at the 

 start, very little pruning must be done at any one time. 

 The form best adapted to plants of more or less erect 

 habit is that of an inverted V with perhaps a slight flat- 

 tenmg of the apex and a bulging of the sides. The reason 

 is that such a form permits all of the branches, even the 

 lowest, an opportunity to secure light, whereas in the in- 

 verted U and the erect-sided, flat-topped styles the lower 

 branches become more shaded as the plants grow older. 

 The result is that the lower limbs of such hedges die and 

 thus seriously injure the appearance of the whole place. 



