40 
ON GROWING CLIMBERS AND OTHER TALL PLANTS AS BUSHES. 
One of the principal— indeed, almost the only — way in which we would 
endeavour to bring about the ends contemplated, is by repeated, judicious, and 
energetic pruning. This, as a means of improving upon the modes of cultivation 
most in vogue, has by no means obtained its due prominence. To produce in any 
climbing or rambling plant a dwarfness, symmetry, and branching character, no 
method can be so effective as pruning, provided always that the plant be susceptible 
of amelioration by such means. 
To prune a Climber or a straggling plant of any description into a low and 
compact state, it is indispensable that the operation be begun early. As a shoot 
can only be trained nicely in a given position, by a due and timely attention to 
securing it in that position, so, more peculiarly, a plant can alone be made to 
assume a particular shape by commencing the means of giving it that shape while 
it is yet very young, and before it has taken another form. Pruning should there- 
fore be resorted to upon the first or leading shoot, and at the end of its first year's 
growth. 
But early pruning will be of no use in such a case, unless it be vigorously con- 
tinued. Prune frequently, must be as much the cultivator's motto, as prune soon. 
The latter is necessary to educe lateral shoots, in sufficient abundance, and suffi- 
ciently near the base of the plant. Yet the former must be adhered to, as the sole 
way of multiplying the number of those lateral shoots, and relieving that degree of 
dwarfness which may have been commenced. Nor should this subsequent pruning 
be confined to the winter season. In reference to tender exotics, it should be 
repeated several times in the same summer, where the plants will admit of its being 
done ; and even the hardiest species, whose shoots are at all disposed to ramble, 
may have those shoots stopped once or even twice in the progress of their growth. 
Prune closely, is still another maxim which must be strictly enjoined. Early 
pruning and repeated pruning will be of comparatively little value, without hard 
pruning. The shoots — at least where the operation is a winter one, and during 
the two or three first years of the plant'^s advancement — should be cut down to 
within two or three inches of the old wood, as their nature may demand or 
justify ; for it is solely by this close reduction that the desired compactness and 
profusion of laterals can be realized. 
That the shoots should be pruned down to a bud or eye — that a sharp knife 
should be used for the purpose in all cases — and that where the branches are small 
and tender, or the laterals scanty, or the growth exceedingly luxuriant, greater 
rigour should be exercised in the process — are directions which may just be alluded 
to, and of which all will perceive and appreciate the propriety. 
A second manner in which dwarfness may be ensured or assisted, is by greatly 
cramping the roots of the plants. The old Chinese fashion will furnish an idea 
of this. Miniature trees, of eighteen inches or two feet in height, can be obtained 
by this mode ; and, consequently, tall-growing plants must necessarily be capable 
of a similar reduction in height and other dimensions. The practice must, how- 
