23 
OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY. 
Pruning, layering, planting cuttings of hardy shrubs, and digging shrubbery 
borders, are the chief items of the gardener's out-door labour this month. These, 
we know, are frequently concluded in small gardens before January ; but in large 
places there are many circumstances which render it impossible to attend to such 
matters so early, and we could wish that the practice were entirely discarded. 
We speak principally, however, of borders, and not of small beds in which there 
may be a considerable quantity of bulbous plants. 
The month of November for transplanting trees and large shrubs, the present 
season for pruning and its concomitant operations, and six weeks hence, or even 
later, for digging borders and dividing herbaceous plants, are severally the most 
suitable periods for many reasons. We shall not attempt to support the former 
position, as that will not be gainsaid. That this is the fittest time for pruning, 
we assert mainly because all plants whose branches require reducing or thinning 
are now in their most dormant state. It is also the most convenient, in that, 
during the preceding months, there are, in the majority of places, some alterations 
to be effected ; besides which, the ground is usually frozen at this time, so that 
the primings, as well as the decayed leaves and other rubbish that has accumulated 
in the shrubberies, can be removed without injuring the walks, verges, or lawns. 
There is one particular very much neglected by persons who prune ornamental 
shrubs, which, in those that are at all conspicuous, occasions an unsightly appear- 
ance. It is the indifference manifested as to the point at which the severance is 
made. The consequence is, that throughout the ensuing summer and autumn, 
the shrubs may be seen covered with little dead spurs. As these have always 
to be cut out the next winter, it would be much easier to prune down each shoot 
close to a bud or eye, and thus at once prevent such an annoyance to individuals 
of taste as that just reprehended. 
In pruning small plantations, or their exterior borders, there are far fewer 
shrubs whose branches need shortening than is commonly imagined. It is a 
palpable, though prevailing error, to cut in the shoots of Lilacs, Syringas, Guelder 
Hoses, and the like. All that is requisite is an occasional thinning, with the 
reduction of any shoot that is extremely luxuriant ; and where the plants are 
surrounded by suckers, it is much better that these should be entirely eradicated, 
than annually headed down. In short, some kinds of Roses, and plants of a 
similar nature, are the only shrubs that demand to have their young wood 
shortened; for the stronger-growing species are not adapted for planting in 
borders, and a little observation will show that they flower in infinitely greater 
profusion, as well as look decidedly more ornamental, wdien the knife is applied 
to them merely to remove positive superfluities. Shoots of the species of Kibes, 
