Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.PCS 1/10/84; site mtgzy.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!houxm!mtuxo!mtgzy!seb
From: seb@mtgzy.UUCP (s.e.badian)
Newsgroups: net.garden
Subject: Advice on Pruning Shrubs
Message-ID: <1739@mtgzy.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Apr-86 13:23:57 EST
Article-I.D.: mtgzy.1739
Posted: Mon Apr 21 13:23:57 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 23-Apr-86 14:46:19 EST
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 15


	I just moved into a house with well-established landscaping. I
can't say I'm too thrilled with the landscaping (the former owners
lacked imagination in this area; their idea of visual interest was
strict symmetry), but I'm not ready to rip it all out, yet. My problem
is that most of the shrubs and roses have been pruned horribly, and
I'm not sure how to proceed. Should I prune them like I would a well-
formed shrub, just thinning and cutting out the dead wood? Or should
I get the ax? Or should I let them grow out some and then attack them
with the pruning shears? (If you're curious, the shrubs all look like
vases, even the poor forsythias, even a dogwood tree! Horrors! They
all look just like the "don't" diagrams in the gardening books.)

Sharon Badian
ihnp4!mtgzy!seb