133 



The Greening System of Pruning 

 Hardy Trees and Shrubs 

 for Formal Effects 



0 



THIS idea came to me some years ago, whilst meditating in a 

 contemplative mood on the marvelous achievements of the 

 Japanese in dwarfing the maple and cherry trees by severe pruning, 

 and the reflection was forced upon my mind that their great beauty 

 and variety of foliage forms and colors were incidental results, all 

 traceable to a fundamental law or fact in nature ; so that my method 

 may be said to be an American adaptation of the Japanese idea, 

 but so far as its application to American conditions is concerned 

 I was its first advocate in this countr}^ 



M)' claim for it is two-fold. First, 

 MY CLAIM it enlarges the scope of formal effects ; 



IS TWO-FOLD for by its use many shrubs that are 



naturally loose and open are made com- 

 pact, and a group of them sheared to some regular outline is very 

 effective in a formal garden. Also for street planting, or yards 

 open to the street, where evergreens cannot be used on account of 

 the injury they sustain from dogs, my system of pruning makes 

 of ordinary shrubs a good substitute for the formal effects of ever- 

 greens. And, furthermore, in a small yard where the free and 

 flowing lines of a natural garden are impracticable, and where 

 the treatment is largely architectural, the foundation lines of a 

 house may be treated in the same way and a beautiful banking 

 of shrubs can be used, where a natural, untrimmed growth would 

 look disheveled or out of place altogether. Thus it will be seen 

 that in this respect alone my method increases by three-fold the 

 practical uses of shrubs in American gardens. 



My second claim is this : Ordinary winter pruning is merely 

 correcti\T. Summer pruning is directive and formative. To 

 deprive a tree or shrub of one-half its foliage in the early summer 

 is the most severe disciplinary training to which it can be sub- 

 jected; and the natural effort at readjustment of the sap pressure 

 results in added beauties of color to the foliage and the formation 

 of a greater amount of young lateral branches. 



The object then, of summer pruning 

 THE ORJECT OF is to make the shrubs grow into a solid 



SUMMER PRUNING mass, which harmonizes with the general 



scheme of a formal garden and the 

 architectural lines of a small property, as well as to make a substi- 



Plate 190 



HOW TO PRUNE THE SILVER MAPLE 



The Silver Maple is a very fast-growing tree, but as the wood is some- 

 what brash and liable to split, it should be headed back for several years 

 after planting, by trimming off about a third of the previous year's growth. 

 This makes a strong and compact crown. The pruning should be done 

 the latter part of May or early June, when there will be no danger from 

 bleeding. This pruning season applies to all Maples. 



tute for evergreens wliei'e they are not practicable. As an inci- 

 dental result the beauty of the foliage is increased and intensive 

 color schemes are made possible. 



Having in mind the securing of this compact form the shrubs 

 should be cut low at the time of planting, at least to one-half their 

 height. This forces them to form branches near the ground and 

 thus keeps them dense and compact. In the spring of the second 

 year all the leading branches should be cut back about one-third ; 

 and again in early June. This checks the upward growth and 

 causes lateral branches to form, thus securing a compact hedge 

 efifect. During the third year the same idea should be carried 



