HOUSE AND GARDEN 
The Why and How of Pruning 
The purpose of this page is to set forth in the most direct, non-tech- 
mcal form the fundamental principles of amateur gardening. Unlike the 
great mass of garden literature, it presupposes no knowledge of the subject, 
aiming to satisfy those who now for the first time want to know how to make 
things grow. The Editor will welcome any questions from beginners and 
will print in these columns the experience of contributors when they seem 
to have a wide appeal. 
166 
N owhere is the strug¬ 
gle for existence keener 
and fiercer than in the vege¬ 
table kingdom. Thousands 
of seedlings sprout for every 
one that reaches maturity, 
and everywhere along the 
way from root to branch and 
fruit, there is the same lavish 
extravagance in Nature to 
keep the balance up. 
This is the chief reason 
for pruning, broadly speak¬ 
ing ; the principle of it is 
always to relieve the plant 
by reducing this struggle. For 
of course when its best efforts 
are constantly strained to the 
utmost in just keeping alive, it 
cannot produce flowers or 
fruit in abundance nor of 
very high quality. And when 
there are too many branches, 
or many that are old and 
weak, it amounts practically 
to the same thing. None can 
be as strong and leafy as they 
should when all are insuffi¬ 
ciently nourished; so it is 
virtually a struggle for life 
between thenv cQnstantly. A 
little pruning every year is 
like the stitch in time — and 
the destruction of an ambi¬ 
tious shoot as soon as it starts 
is far easier on the tree and the gardener 
too, than the laborious task of sawing 
through a good sized limb after it has had 
time to mature. 
In the first place there are two things 
about form to remember in pruning: one, 
applying to trees, especially, is that lead¬ 
ing branches must never be allowed to 
spring from the same point on the trunk — 
or from opposite the same point, is per¬ 
haps clearer — while the other, applicable 
to every sort of plant — is that, generally 
speaking, the outer shoots or branches 
should be left and the inner ones cut 
away. 
In the first instance the tree is weak¬ 
ened structurally and will split more 
readily under stress of wind or ice — or 
fruit — when its branches diverge at just 
the same level, forming a sharp crotch or 
Y; in the second, a plant becomes choked 
and top heavy if inner growth is con¬ 
stantly encouraged, and the branches 
suffer injury from rubbing against each 
other. So much for form. 
Next in importance, to be always re¬ 
membered and considered when there is 
any clipping to be done, is the fact that 
every tree or shrub or vine has its own 
little personal peculiarity about flowers 
and the manner of producing them—and 
produces them usually only on wood of a 
certain age — sometimes one year, some¬ 
times two, and sometimes more yet. So 
it is always necessary to know the pecu¬ 
liarity of any plant in question in this 
respect before venturing to lop off a 
branch, else an entire season’s product 
may be literally nipped in the bud 
Of fruit trees the apple and pear bear 
on “spurs” of old wood that may be 
anywhere along the branches, but peaches 
are always borne on wood of the previ¬ 
ous season’s growth. Trimming off the 
annual shoots will therefore sacrifice the 
fruit of the latter but not of the former; 
while “heading in” — that is, removing 
the ends of the branches with their grow¬ 
ing terminal buds, being a process that 
encourages the growth of lateral buds— 
that are waiting for just this to happen— 
into shoots or young branches, of course 
increases the amount of new, therefore of 
fruit producing, wood. See the Beginner's 
Garden for March, where the matter is 
more elaborately explained. 
Of flowering shrubs, the lilac and the 
hydrangea afford much the same con¬ 
trast as the apple and peach among fruit 
trees. Hydrangeas bloom on wood of 
the season’s growth, lilac on wood of the 
previous season. The former may there¬ 
fore be pruned very early in the spring 
without danger of destroying the blossoms, 
but the latter should only be gone over 
with the knife immediately after flower¬ 
ing. This gives them the chance to grow 
branches for the next season and to stow 
them with flower buds before frost 
interferes. 
It is of course out of the question in 
this limited space to name a very complete 
list of trees and shrubs, with their pecu¬ 
liarities in regard to bloom, but some of 
the most commonly planted are included 
below—and questions will be most will¬ 
ingly answered by mail if the one plant 
that puzzles any reader is omitted. 
April, 1910 
TREE FRUITS 
Apple: Fruit borne on old 
spurs; prune in winter or 
spring. 
Pear: Fruit borne on old 
spurs; prune sparingly in 
spring. 
Plum: Fruit mostly on spurs 
but in some varieties on 
both spurs and annual 
growth; prune after har¬ 
vest. 
Cherry: Similar to plum; 
prune in spring or after 
harvest. 
Peach: Fruit borne near base 
of previous year’s shoots; 
prune after harvest. 
SMALL FRUITS 
Blackberry: Fruit borne on 
canes of previous sea¬ 
son’s growth; cut old 
canes out after fruiting; 
cut young canes back as 
soon as 2 ft. high; cut 
laterals on these spar¬ 
ingly at tips in spring, 
or not at all. 
Raspberry: Same as black¬ 
berry; spring pruning is 
only to thin the fruit; a 
cutting out should be 
done the previous sea¬ 
son. 
Currant: Fruit borne on both old and 
young wood; the best on base of 
1-year shoots springing from i-year 
spurs; have no wood over three 
years old. 
Grapes: Borne on wood of present season 
which rises from wood of previous 
season; fall or winter pruning is best. 
FLOWERING SHRUBS 
Roses: Flowers borne on new wood; 
prune out old wood and weak shoots 
after flowering, or cut back before 
sap starts in spring from £ to f of 
bush. 
Forsythia: Flowers borne on old wood; 
prune immediately after flowering. 
Hibiscus (Rose of Sharon): On the sea¬ 
son’s shoot; prune in fall or early 
spring. 
Hydrangea: Borne on the season’s shoots; 
prune in fall or early spring. 
Lonicera (Honeysuckle): Usually on sea¬ 
son’s shoots; safest to prune imme¬ 
diately after flowering however as 
some bloom very early. 
Philadelphus (Syringa): Borne on old 
wood; prune immediately after flow¬ 
ering. 
Spiraea: On old wood; prune sparingly 
after flowering. 
Syringa (Lilac); On last year’s wood; 
prune immediately after flowering. 
Viburnum: On old wood; prune after 
flowering. 
Diervilla: On old wood; prune after 
flowering. 
(Continued on page xxiv) 
