NATIVE AND HARDY EVERGREENS 231 



shape is desired foreign to its nature, or its allotted 

 space has been outgrown. 



Evergreens differ from deciduous plants in regard 

 to time of pruning. Most deciduous things may be 

 pruned at any time between the fall of the leaf and 

 the recommencement of growth in spring. But ever- 

 greens should never be pruned in late autumn or 

 winter. For plants that are grown merely for foliage 

 sake and not for the flowers, pruning should be done 

 just as new growth is commencing. In the case of 

 flowering shrubs like Rhododendron or Berberis it 

 should be done as soon as the flowering season 

 is past. 



As a matter of routine cultivation, however, and 

 as an aid to improved health or freedom of flower- 

 ing, pruning is not so necessary for evergreens as 

 with many deciduous plants. A Rhododendron, a 

 Pieris, a Berberis stenophylla, and all similar things 

 never want pruning in the sense that a Spiraea or 

 a Rose does. 



Climbing Evergreens. — One of the peculiar- 

 ities of the evergreen class of plants is the marked 

 absence of climbing species in cool temperate coun- 

 tries — that is, true climbers, not, the numerous 

 things that are made to do duty as such on 

 walls. If one takes up a tree and shrub catalogue 

 of even the best nurserymen, one is struck by the 

 few evergreen climbers offered. In spite of the 

 fact that the cool, temperate regions of the earth 

 have been so thoroughly ransacked during the last 

 century, no plant has ever been found that equals 



