22G 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. I July 10. 
About the end of August, our practice is to top the 
whole of the shoots; and, also, at or about this period, 
to remove as many of the first pinched-back shoots— 
now become a kind of waste snag—as seem to shade the 
natural spurs and the fruit; such we cut close away. 
We had intended to have offered a “ Companion to the 
Calendar,” a practice which we by no means think it 
expedient to throw by altogether; but still one which it 
would seem may be suffered to give way, occcasionally, 
to a press of other matter. It will, perhaps, be neces¬ 
sary in our next to continue this observation on the 
Midsummer management of fruit trees ; and, in the 
meantime, would beg the readers of this work to be 
very much in earnest all July. Fruit culture is not yet 
above half-understood; and what is known, is not one- 
tliird carried out. When there is as much earnestness 
in this matter as in flower culture, then will British 
gardening become a whole; now it is but done by 
halves. R. Errtngton. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Pruning Evergreens. —With the exception of the 
Laurustinus, which should be pruned only in May after 
it has done flowering, this month is the best time in the 
year for pruning evergreens; but, with a few exceptions, 
you may go over the gardens of half the country, and see 
that for the last twenty years the proper management 
of evergreens has almost been entirely neglected. There 
is nothing about a place which, more than another, tells 
that we have all too many irons in the fire, than this 
class of plants. When people have leisure in the winter, 
they know that it is not the right time to put their 
evergreens into good shapes, or keep them to their proper 
bounds ; and in the summer, when the work should be 
attended to, they know just as well that they have no 
time to attend to such things. Young evergreens get 
up, in a few years, with all sorts of defects, and fifteen 
or twenty years hence, a practised eye can see what is 
going on among them now as well, if not better, as if 
the same eyes were present this very July—leaders and 
side branches grow as they list. Fastigiate or upright 
growing sorts get round-headed forms, round-headed 
ones grow to one side, the leading limbs to this or that 
side of a tree, and all, and much more besides, for the 
want of the pruning-knife, or of the finger-and-tlxumb- 
way of stopping, applied regularly at the proper season. 
It is not too much to say, that in a first-rate garden 
the pruner is, or should be, as busy at his section in 
July as at any other period of the whole year; and, as a 
criterion as to how far he has advanced in his art, we 
shall lay it down thus. A stranger looking at an ever¬ 
green bush or tree, of any size or age, directly after it 
has been pruned, should not be able to perceive, at a 
cursory glance, that the knife had touched it for the last 
twelve-months If one can see, at a glance, that an ever¬ 
green has been recently cut in, depend upon it the 
pruner wants a notch or two. The worst of the matter 
is, however, that it is very difficult to convey, by verbal 
or written descriptions, a just notion of how this high 
style of art is effected. 
I am never measured for an article of dress, without 
regretting that one man cannot explain the finger-work 
of his art to another with the same precision as the best 
“ fitter,” but, as that cannot be done, we must be content 
with general maxims or rules; and one of the first 
fundamental rules in pruning evergreens is, the loicest 
branches should he the longest, whatever the shape of the 
head may he. There is not a single exception to this 
rule that I know of; no sooner is a higher branch allowed 
to grow out farther from the main stem of a tree, or from 
j l' 16 general mass of branches on a bush, than the lower 
I branches, than a direct error is committed; and, if not 
remedied by cutting in this longer branch, a sure founda¬ 
tion is laid for the destruction of the lower parts of the 
tree, which will, in the long run, cause it to get naked i 
below, because the longer branch will shade the others 
and throw off the rain from them. You may see an 
example of this bad management along the road-sides 
in every parish in England. Hedges, in general, are so 
unskilfully treated all over the country, that there is no 
lack of “bare bottoms” anywhere, and this from allowing 
the hedge to be nearly as broad at the top as it is at the 
bottom. Let us, therefore, bear in mind that every 
branch, yea, every leaf on an evergreen, should stand in 
the same relation to each other as the slates or tiles on 
a roof, no matter what the outline of the head be. 
The second rule is, no leaf should he cut through in 
pruning an evergreen. Clipping evergreen hedges does 
not come in under the rule of pruning. 
The last rule applies to the mode of cutting. No cut 
ends should he seen on the hush or tree; and that is ef¬ 
fected by beginning the cut on the opposite side to 
where you stand, and always cutting with an up stroke; 
then the cut part will either face downwards or towards 
the centre of the plant; and if you cut quite close to a 
lateral branch, or to the bottom of a leaf-stalk, as all 
good primers do in the summer, and as all the worst 
kind of pruners do in the winter, I should like to 
know how I, or anybody else, could find out, at a 
yard’s distance, that your plant had been pruned at 
all. This reminds me of how we explained the differ¬ 
ence between the cuts in summer and in winter-pruning 
at the very beginning of The Cottage Garuener ; 
and I take blame to myself for not having drawn public 
attention to that point every summer since. There 
is a very common and a most mischievous pruning 
cut, which, as far as I am aware of, has never yet been 
mentioned in print, and I hope to put scores, yea thou¬ 
sands, to the blush when I mention it, for of all the 
cuts in this cutting world, it is the one against which 
there ought to be an Act of Parliament to put it down. 
But I am wrong; it is not a cut at all, but a snap off, 
and is done on this-wise : a knife is held firmly by the 
four fingers of the right hand with the edge facing the 
thumb, the thumb itself being free, but bent on mischief; 
a rose shoot, or the branch of some other plant, is now 
grasped between the edge of the knife and the thumb, 
the shoot is then pressed against the edge of the knife 
by the thumb, and by a turn or twist of the hand the 
shoot is snapped asunder on the edge of the knife, 
leaving a bruised or jagged cut, just as if a wild goat 
had gnawed it off. Now, a dozen of such bruised or 
gnawed cuts over the head of a fine rose-bush, are as 
bad as any thing can be, and will be sure to do it much 
injury, as the bruised ends will either die back or let in 
the wet, or be a harbour for insects or their eggs, besides 
the slovenliness of the tiling. 
Banksian Roses. —The knife should never touch 
them in the way of pruning, except during this month, 
or very late in June, just after they have done flowering. 
The great cause of their not flowering well, is either that 
they are pruned at the wrong season, or that they are 
allowed to make very strong shoots that never ripen 
well. All the pruning they require, is to thin out some 
of the long shoots entirely, and to cut back, or spur the 
little side branches. The reason for this kind of prun¬ 
ing is, that they do not flower on the current year’s 
wood, like other roses, but on the wood made the pre¬ 
vious season. Then, to get a season’s growth well 
ripened before the winter is the grand secret of their 
proper management, and the best way to do that is to 
confine them to short growths, by nipping off the tips 
of all the side shoots before they extend six inches in 
length, so as to cause them to break out into still 
smaller branches, and all the wood or growth they make 
after the middle of September should be nipped off I 
