PRUNING ORNAMENTAL TREES Here is a wide range of choice. If foliage is the ornamental feature, or a multitude of flowers, no matter how small, little thinning of branches will be required. If size of flowers is more important than numbers, thinning should be thorough. Late blooming kinds are best pruned in spring; early-blooming kinds, directly' after the fading of the flowers. The energies of bud formation are thus concentrated on the branches that remain.
Dwarf forms of trees are kept in trim by pruning the roots with a sharp spade, and by "heading in" the branches severely.
Shearing keeps a tree in formal shape. Weeping trees and others of peculiar habits are trimmed to preserve their characteristics.
In all ornamental trees care must be taken to cut off shoots that start below the bud or graft. The stock is of a different kind, and these low shoots therefore introduce a false note into the top grown from the cion or bud.