Reviewer Allan Becker: Allan has been designing and planting flower gardens, since he was a teenager in the 1960's. Now retired from the soft goods industry, where he held several positions in design, product development, and marketing, he has turned his passion for gardening into a second career, as a garden designer for private clients in Montreal, Canada.
In spring and summer, he provides his assistants, most college students, who transform his designs into flower gardens. In winter, he reviews books on garden-related topics for Bookpleasures.com and writes a Gardening Blog.
Allan earned a B.A. from McGill University, followed by two years of studies in design at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia). He lives in the Montreal suburb of Cote St. Luc, Quebec with his wife and travels regularly to Toronto and Boston to visit his children and grandchildren.
Authors Lewis Hill and Penelope
O’Sullivan
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-60342-710-4
Authors Lewis Hill and Penelope
O’Sullivan
Publisher: Storey Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-60342-710-4
This is an actual pocket book. Because it measures only 4.5x 6 inches in size, gardeners who wears cargo pants or shorts can easily fit this tiny guide into a bellow pocket for fast reference. The book is divided into 13 chapters, each one addressing a different aspect of pruning. Inside, the reader will find answers to the basic questions why and when to prune. It furnishes the list of tools required, and addresses good and bad pruning practices. General advice is offered for pruning deciduous and flowering trees, ornamental shrubs, evergreens, hedges, topiaries, espaliers, cordons, woody vines, ground cover, fruit trees, bush fruit, brambles, grapes, and nut trees.
In addition, instructions are given for coppicing whereby a tree is cut to ground level so that it performs as a shrub and pollarding, a technique that keeps deer from eating trees. Diagramed suggestions are provided for loosening, protecting and replacing a vine in order to paint exterior siding and on training a rose shrub to grow on a trellis. We are informed why rhododendrons should be dead headed, and how they should be pruned. An illustration demonstrates various ways that hedges can work for us in the garden. These include, shielding traffic noises, hiding unattractive views, discouraging trespassing, forming wind breaks or snow traps, sheltering nesting birds and more. Finally, the book is rounded out with a 54 page plant-by-plant pruning guide for ornamental trees, shrubs and vines.
According to the authors, wild animals prune trees and shrubs naturally when they eat plants.
…..over time, people have observed nature’s pruning methods and have tried to improve on them because pruning –when properly done- strengthens rather than weakens trees……pruning is a balance between art and science, between a plant’s essential form and your pruning goal or the effect that you want to achieve.
Among the basic issues that are discussed include reducing the chances of a tree falling on one’s home, whether to prune trees after they leaf out in spring, to prune or not to prune a shrub before transplanting, correct pruning of raspberries and upright blackberries, the wisdom of harvesting blooms from flowering shrubs, and whether or not neglected grapevines can be rejuvenated. One topic that intrigues me is raised by the question:”Is it worth my time to restore an old flowering tree that used to be pretty but now looks kind of sad?”
However, the section of the book that has the greatest importance for me is the plant-by-plant pruning guide. For it is there that I have found information I was lacking. For several years, I have included hydrangea bushes in my perennial flower compositions. Learning the proper maintenance for each variety can be mind boggling in the middle of a very hectic planting season. Now, everything that I need to know about pruning this family of shrubs is conveniently accessible from a book in my pocket.
