Pruning and Training Plants

by Joyce, David

• ISBN13: 9781552975343
• ISBN10: 1552975347
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd

Summary

This superb guide uses specially commissioned color photographs and diagrams to clearly explain the basic pruning procedures. All the popular plants suitable for pruning or training are covered in the authoritative text. Diagrams and photographs combine to give a detailed visual reference of what a plant should look like before, during, and after pruning care. Ornamentals: roses, deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, climbers, wall shrubs, hedges and topiary, pinch pruning Fruit Trees: apples and pears, plums, cherries, peaches, apricots, figs, renovating fruit trees, plus many more Soft Fruits and Vines: gooseberries, currants, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and cranberries, grapes, passion fruit, kiwi fruitThe book also features: 300 step-by-step color diagrams to guide readers through a year-long agenda of what to do, when, and how Superb color photographs showing plants that are pruned or trained to look their best through all seasons A-Z plant directories for quick reference to practical advice Complete cross-references to detailed instructions Tools and equipment A glossary of technical terms plus further reading and a comprehensive index

Author Biography

David Joyce is a writer and plant advisor with a passionate interest in plants and the history of their cultivation. His other books include The English Garden Tradition, Garden Styles, Hanging Baskets, Window Boxes and Containers and Windowbox Gardening.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Introduction

Ornamentals

Roses

Modern Bush Roses

Species and Shrub Roses

Climbers and Ramblers

Standard Roses

Exhibition Roses

Rose Hedges/Renovation

A-Z Of Roses Trees

Feathered Trees

Standard Trees

The Care of Established Trees

Shrubs

Deciduous Shrubs

Evergreen Shrubs

Renovation

Climbers and Wall Shrubs

Hedera

Clematis

Wisterias

Ceanothus

Chaenomeles and Pyracantha

Hedges

Formal Hedges

Pleaching

Arbours and Tunnels

Renovating Formal Hedgs

Informal and Rustic Hedges

Topiary

Geometric Shapes

Representational Shapes

A-Z of Ornamentals Pinch Pruning

Cascase Chrysanthemums

Fuchsias

Coleus

Pelargoniums

Miscellaneous Ornamentals Tree Fruits

Apples and Pears

Bushes and Standards

Spindlebush Trees

Cordons

Espaliers

Dwarf Pyramids

Fans, Arches, and Tunnels

Plums

Pyramid Plums

Fan-trained Plums

Sweet and Duke Cherries

Acid Cherries

Peaches

Apricots

Figs

Renovation Of Fruit Trees

Other Fruit Trees

Citrus Fruits

Quinces and Medlars

Mulberries

Elderberries

Cobnuts and Filberts

Walnuts/Pecans/Chestnuts

Olives

Persimmons and PomergranatesSoft Fruits and Vines

Gooseberries

Red And White Currants

Black Currants

Raspberries

Blackberries

Blueberries And Cranberries

Grapes

Passion Fruit

Kiwi Fruit

Tools and Equipment

Glossary

Index

Further Reading

Acknowledgements

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Introduction Controlling the growth of plants and shaping them by pruning and training are often considered the most puzzling aspects of gardening. Sadly, many gardeners content themselves with a policy of random snipping or savage butchery rather than acquiring the relatively uncomplicated skills that can be so important in the successful cultivation of plants.Those who have participated in the making of this book hope that the straightforward explanation of pruning and training procedures offered here, based on their professional experience, will encourage more gardeners to acquire these valuable skills. As well as explaining in text, diagrams, and photographs the major techniques of pruning and training, the book presents the specific requirements of ornamentals, tree fruits, and soft fruits, with particular reference to those grown in the temperate parts of the world.The diagrams and photographs are seen as an important amplification of the text, but it must be recognized when using them as a guide that there can be considerable differences between individual specimens of plants. The age of wood is often a significant factor in pruning and therefore different tones of green have been used in the diagrams to distinguish one year's growth from another.Many, indeed most, of the operations described in this book can be carried out by amateur gardeners, provided that they are equipped with the right tools. Large pruning cuts are dealt with in more detail on pages 43-5, but it is necessary to warn amateurs against undertaking almost all forms of tree surgery. Experienced and qualified tree surgeons should be employed to remove all large limbs and to undertake any major pruning requiring the use of power tools and ladders. Pruning, training, and plant growth In pruning a shoot or branch the gardener is interfering with the plant's own mechanism for controlling its development. On most woody plants each shoot ends in a terminal or apical bud, below which other buds are arranged in a pattern characteristic of the species, the position of the buds determining where branches will form. The arrangement may be alternate, opposite. spiral or whorled.The apical bud is the growing point of the shoot and asserts its dominance by producing a chemical that inhibits growth of the buds below it. If the terminal bud is removed, whether pruned, pinched out (sometimes known as stopping), or broken off, the supply of the growth-retarding substance is interrupted. The relatively rapid growth of lateral shoots, known as "breaking", is quickly discernible in the case of a sub-shrub such as a fuchsia which has had its leading shoot pinched out. The same response, resulting in bushy growth, is produced by the frequent removal of terminal buds in hedge clipping.In practice many pruning cuts are made to a specific bud or pair of buds below the tip of the shoot. Selecting a bud that will grow in the desired direction, usually out from the center of the plant, and cutting back to just above it is the key to the skilful shaping of most ornamentals and fruit-bearing bushes and trees. All cuts must be made with sharp clean tools (see pp. 214-15), for bruised or crushed stems and ragged edges can be points of entry for disease.It is worth mentioning that woody plants compartmentalize wounds, including pruning cuts, as a defense against infection. It is now recognized that the old practice of flush cutting when removing limbs from trees and large shrubs destroys the plants' own lines of defense, and may lead to serious infection even when a wound forms a callus.The severity of cutting back is another factor influencing plant growth. As a rule, pruning stimulates growth, and this is particularly true of pruning carried out in winter. It is an important point to grasp, and an apparent contradiction, that weak growth can be stimulated to grow vigorously by hard cutting back and that vigorous growth i