Author(s): Richard Bird

Gardening

This essential practical guide aims to take the mystery out of pruning. It illustrates that the correct training and pruning of ornamental and decorative garden plants has many rewards, including improved flower production, healtheir plants, improved plant shape, and a tidier garden. Opening with an essential introduction which covers all the basic principles, equipment and techniques, the chapters are then arranged by plant type, covering ornamental trees, shrubs, topiary, hedges, climbers and wall shrubs, roses, and perennials and annuals. Each chapter includes practical advice, illustrated with step-by-step photographic sequences and artworks, on the initial training of the plant; how to prune the plant once it is established; and how to undertake renovation pruning. An invaluable directory then looks at a wide range of ornamental plants and explains the timing, frequency and method of pruning for each species. This section creates a highly effective seasonal work calendar as well as a reliable practical handbook you will turn to again and again. With over 600 photographs and more than 70 specially commissioned artworks, many of them step-by-step, this is the only books on pruning ornamental plants that any gardener will ever need.