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Plate XLVI. Many of our common garden perennials possess the possibil-ities to produce very interesting colour effects through the colour combinationof the flowers. (A) Italian alkanet; (B) hardy marguerite. (See page 231) An ornamental plant is rarely over-supplied with flowers. It thereforebehooves us to preserve, so far as possible, all of the buds which pro-duce flowers. Practically all of the growth of new wood on these plants,which adds to the increasing size of the plant, develops after the planthas completed its flowering period. Buds containing the flowers forthe succeeding year are often developed on wood which is formed afterthe plant has matured its flowers. Therefore, pruning on plants ofthis kind, such as the mock orange, high-bush cranberry, snowball,and Van Houtte's spirea, should be done immediately after the flowershave matured, to stimulate a correct kind of new growth on whichmay be developed flower buds for the next season. One of the mostcommon faults in connection with the pruning of trees and shrubs isthat of applying the same principles of pruning to all kinds of shrubsregardless of whether they are early spring-flowering or late summer-flowering, and in so doing to deprive the plant of much of its beautyand attractiveness exhibited through its mass of flowers. In suchshrubs, of the spring and early summer-flowering types, which produceflowers from buds on the growth of the previous year, pruning, toproduce the maximum of new growth for increasing the quantity offlowers during the succeeding year, should never be delayed more thantwo weeks beyond the time when the plant has matured its flowers. |
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