The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Shrubs And Trees
For instance, in Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora one removes all weak and frail branches and cuts the stronger canes down to two or three "eyes." They will then bear enormous clusters in the early autumn on the newly developed growth.
Among the shrubs that may be pruned back severely in the spring are most of the Tamarix species (not T. parviflora), Hydrangea paniculata and its varieties, H. arborescens and H. radiata, Callicarpa dichotoma, Spiraa ANTHONY WATERER and its kindred, Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon), and several others.
Under rejuvenative pruning we may class also the annual cutting back, close to their base, in the spring, of the so called the back shrubs and such other kinds as are best treated like the-backs. This amounts to the raising of a new shrub every summer. For a list of the-back shrubs, consult the classified tabulations under that heading on p.55
Hygienic Pruning includes the removal of all broken or dead parts and those infected with diseases that cannot be controlled satisfactorily with fungicides, like fire-blight in Hawthorns and Cotoneasters. This may be done at practically any time except during hard frost.
It is good practice, also, to remove occasional, isolated branches infested with scale insects, rather than to wait for the slower effect of insecticides.
Scale insects generally favor crowded and dense conditions, so that the thinning of naturally dense shrubs and the relief of crowding may be expected to lessen the danger of infestation.
Unless for any of the above or any other urgent purpose pruning is definitely in order, do not feel that you owe your shrubs a pruning or "bobbing" merely from a sense of neatness. Like as not it would ruin their best characteristics and flowering qualities. If you possess that sense of tidiness that yearns for trimmed bushes, exercise it on the Privet hedge. But as far as your other shrubs are concerned, break yourself of it and strive to appreciate their natural manner, which is so much more pleasing, once you come to see it rightly, than the effect of so many cannon balls.
Except insofar as is indicated above, what pruning of shrubs may be necessary may be done safely at any time during the dormant season, but not during hard frost.
That goes as well for such light pruning of trees as comes within the general scope of this chapter, except that Maples and Birches should not be pruned in the spring, during which season they would "bleed" badly. Early autumn is a good season for light to moderately heavy pruning of trees.
