The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
15 Basic Ways To Landscape Your Homepage
Proper pruning is essential for the best development of any screen or hedge. Low branching should be encouraged to extend foliage all the way to the ground. After low branches are established, trimming should proceed with the aim of keeping these lower branches dense and bushy.
Practically all deciduous material should be cut back drastically, regardless of original height, when purchased; to encourage the growth of more side branches. Plants to be developed in natural form should receive no further severe pruning. Merely cut out dead or broken branches, or shorten where necessary for effect.
For formal screens or hedges, new shoots should be cut back to within a few inches during the first winter. Pinch out tender tips occasionally during the following growing season to help side branches develop. At the end of the third year trimming should he started to create and maintain the definite shape desired.
Shaping hedges is ordinarily a matter of taste, but for the benefit of your plants keep the bottom part widest. Pruning may be severe, frequent or moderate according to the formality wanted.
Flowering Spires vanhoutte (bridal wreath) is one of the most widely used plants to provide a perennially beautiful natural screen. Almost entirely clothed by small white blooms in spring, bridal wreath requires no special care, is perfectly hardy and grows almost anywhere. Spirca will take a little shade but prefers sun. Plant them two or three feet apart for a solid screen.
Hardiest of all hedge plants is the Amoor River North privet. Capable of withstanding the coldest winters, it can be trimmed to any desired height to make a dense, thorn less screen. However, it does not require frequent trimming. Leaves are rich dark given and stay on until very late fall. Amoor privet is fine for a division line between yards and new plants should be a foot apart.
California privet (Ligustrum ovalifolium) is extensively used for trimmed hedges. Probably the most handsome of all hardy privets, its shiny dark green leaves remain well into the winter. It is vigorous, dense, and can be used where temperature docs not go much below zero. Install your new hedge plants about three feet apart.
The barberry is another universally used plant suitable as a bushy untrimmed hedge, two to three feet tall. It may also be trimmed to suit the overall landscape. The green leaved barberry is the more common bur a beautiful new red-leaved variety is also available.
The red barberry has rich, lustrous bronze-red foliage which becomes more brilliant in summer and changes to bright orange-scarlet in autumn. Dazzling red berries remain on the plant nearly all winter. It is a popular plant for use as a division marker or boundary fence.
