Pruning and Training: What, When, and How to Prune

338 Pages·2017·82.41 MB·English

by  Christopher Brickell

PRUNING

&
TRAINING
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CHRISTOPHER BRICKELL
DAVID JOYCE
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PRUNING

&
TRAINING
CHRISTOPHER BRICKELL
DAVID JOYCE
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Contents
Revised Edition
Senior Editor Alastair Laing
Art Editor Anne Fisher
Cover Design Nicola Powling
Pre-Production Producer Catherine Williams
Senior Producer Ché Creasey Introduction
Managing Editor Stephanie Farrow
Managing Art Editor Christine Keilty
US Managing Editor Kayla Dugger How plants grow 8
Publisher Mike Sanders
Principles of pruning and training 11
Consultant and Additional Text Guy Barter
New Illustrations Debbie Maizels Tools and equipment 14
DK India
Project Editor Janashree Singha
Editor Sugandh Juneja
Managing Editor Soma B. Chowdhury
Managing Art Editor Navidita Thapa
Pre-Production Manager Sunil Sharma Ornamental trees
Senior DTP Designer Pushpak Tyagi
DTP Designers Manish Upreti, Umesh Singh Rawat
Tree forms 18
First Edition
Project Editor Louise Abbott Basic techniques 19
Project Art Editor Stephen Josland
Initial training 22
Managing Editor Francis Ritter
Managing Art Editor Derek Coombes
Pruning established trees 29
Photography Peter Anderson
Illustrations Karen Cochrane Renovation 32
Additional artwork Sarah Young, John Hutchinson
Coppicing and pollarding 34
First American Edition, 1996
This edition published in the United States in 2017 by Pleaching 36
DK Publishing, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
Conifers 38
Copyright © 2017 Dorling Kindersley Limited
DK, a Division of Penguin Random House LLC Palms and palmlike plants 43
17 18 19 20 21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
001–298656–March/2017 Hedges 44
All rights reserved. Topiary 48
Without limiting the rights under the copyright reserved above, no
part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced Dictionary of ornamental trees 52
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise),
without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited.
A catalog record for this book is available from the
Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4654-5760-8
DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk
for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For
details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014 [email protected]
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Tree fruits
Fruit tree forms 94
Basic techniques 96
Renovation 102
Hardy fruits 104
Tender fruits 140
Nuts 148
Climbing plants
Types of climbing plants 244
Basic techniques 247
Initial training 250
Pruning established climbers 251
Renovation 252
Ornamental shrubs Special training 253
Dictionary of climbing plants 262
Basic techniques 152
Fruiting vines 288
Initial training 155
Pruning established shrubs 158
Renovation 160
Wall-training 162 Roses
Special stem and foliage effects 164
Rose types and forms 300
Training shrubs as standards 165
Basic techniques 302
Bamboos, grasses, and perennials 166
Renovation 305
Pinch-pruning 168
Modern bush roses 306
Dictionary of ornamental shrubs 172
Standard roses 310
Shrub roses 312
Climbing and rambler roses 316
Soft fruits
Special training 319
Soft fruit forms 226
Basic techniques 227 Glossary 326
Cane fruits 228 Index 329
Bush fruits 232 Acknowledgments 336
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Introduction
Understanding how plants grow and appreciating their individual
needs and responses to pruning makes it easier to choose the
correct pruning and training techniques for each one.
At the simplest level, the purpose of pruning natural, sometimes unexpected growth habits
and training is to make sure that plants are to develop. In some situations, pruning to restrict
as healthy and vigorous as possible, free of size may be important—to increase the range of
structural weakness, and at the least risk of plants that can be grown in a limited space, or
being infected by disease. The effects of expert under glass, for example.
pruning, however, go beyond this straightforward In most cases, however, the aim is simply to ensure
aim. With additional know ledge of how pruning a healthy, soundly structured, and pleasingly shaped
and training influences the way in which plants plant. Remember that sound early training lays firm
grow and perform, the gardener can not only foundations for a fine mature specimen, and that,
improve their natural appearance but also at any stage in its life, pruning causes some stress
enhance ornamental features such as flowers and to a plant, so it should never be done without good
foliage, increase crops, and create striking plant reason. If you choose the right plant for the right
features and combinations. Under standing the situation and desired effect, much unnecessary
principles of how and why plants respond to corrective pruning can be avoided.
pruning is the key to realizing their potential.
“How do you prune it?” is one of the most
commonly asked questions about plants. There
is often more than one correct answer, because
many can be grown and pruned in different ways
to produce different effects. While pruning is often
a complex subject, for many plants pruning can be
kept very simple, since they require little more than
the removal of dead, diseased, or damaged wood to
keep them in good health.
There are special considerations that will
influence the type and degree of the pruning that
you undertake. Some people prefer immaculate,
formal gardens in which each plant is neatly and
symmetrically shaped, while others prefer to allow
Mop-head fuchsia
Many small ornamental
plants lend themselves to
novel training and pruning
◂ Classic lines methods. The technique
A formal double row of pleached lime trees of pinch-pruning can be
provides an attractive, regimented allée leading used to produce brilliant
to the informality of the hidden garden beyond. flowering displays.
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8 Introduction
How Plants Grow
For plants to grow, they must have food, is propagated. The most active site of cases, two or more growing tips share
water, light, and a suitable climate. Plants cellular activity is at soft, green shoot tips, apical dominance and form dual
have adapted to a vast range of habitats, where hormones are manufactured that or multiple leaders (see p.24).
and their needs regarding climate (see facing stimulate and control the plant’s growth. The second area of intense cellular
page, below) are correspondingly diverse. Extension growth is made principally from activity is in the cambium layer, which
However, provided that individual needs just below the topmost (apical) bud—the surrounds the plant stem just beneath the
are met, most plants grow in a similar way. growing point or “leader.” The apical bud tough, outer skin, or bark. It is this area of
Plants have the ability to modify the imposes what is called “apical dominance,” activity that enables plants to be grafted; if
structure and function of their cells whereby the hormones move down the genetically compatible, the cambium tissue
throughout their lives. Thus, not only can stem and inhibit the growth of the side of two stems fuses when pressed closely
they reproduce sexually, they are also able, buds (“lateral” buds). These buds will together. The growth at the cambium layer
given the right conditions, to regenerate as break into growth to form branches only increases the stem girth. Not only does the
entire plants from, for example, a small when the growing tip has grown away stem thicken, it also becomes sturdier as
section of stem, root, or leaf separated from strongly. If the apical bud is damaged, a specialized strengthening tissue develops.
the parent plant. This vital ability is single sideshoot may grow up strongly and In woody plants, this process is known as
exploited by gardeners every time a plant reimpose apical dominance, but in some lignification (“becoming woody”). The
buildup of strong, woody stems is
Parts of a plant stimulated by stem movement, such as
that caused by flexing in the wind. This
Opposite buds Apical or terminal bud Alternate buds is why low stakes are preferable during a
(“growing point”)
tree’s early years—they allow stem flexing,
and this helps to produce strong trunks
(see Staking, p.21).
Leading shoot
(“leader”)
HOW PLANT GROWTH ADAPTS
The main objective of a plant is to grow
Axillary buds form to maturity, then reproduce, usually by
in leaf axils Green wood is means of setting seed. Some plants fulfill
Buds in pairs soft and sappy Buds at this function quickly, and then die—the
arising from the intervals on plants we call “annuals” and “biennials.”
same point or node alternate sides Woody and herbaceous perennial plants
of the stem take longer to reach maturity, but then gain
Apical bud of
Cross-section through a
lateral shoot
plant stem
Leaves may be Leaf-stalk
simple (as here) or (petiole) Tough, outer skin, or In the cambium
compound, with bark, minimizes water layer, cells divide
several leaflets on Sublateral, loss from the stem and diversify to create
a single stalk Lateral shoot or sideshoot, surface and protects the vascular bundles of
soft tissue within transporting tissues
develops from develops from
and increase stem girth
a lateral, or bud on lateral
Ripened wood
axillary, bud
has thickened
and may become
woody A node is a point from
which leaves and shoots
Fibrous roots develop. The stem
covered in tiny hairs between nodes is the
absorb water and internode
minerals from the
soil. They are often
associated with Sucker
beneficial fungi Roots thicken, become
woody, and move from
a purely nutritional
Root tip, or
to an additional
growing point
anchoring role; they
may also act as energy
storage organs
Vascular bundles in Pith is a connecting
stem tissue carry water, matrix for other
nutrients, sugars, and tissues. It dies, is
growth hormones up lignified, and forms
and down the stem the heartwood
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