On upright plants, the cut will show, but only briefly, as new growth soon will hide it. Never prune junipers and yews with hedge shears unless the plants are part of a formal hedge. To preserve those graceful, natural lines, remove part of the growth at random over the plant. As yews and arborvitae tend to replace branches quickly and as both have latent buds buried in the bark, you can make your cuts almost anywhere. Just take care to maintain the natural form of the plant.
Specimen hemlocks, firs, spruces and Douglas firs should be left untouched if possible. City gardeners delight in the beautiful forms and color of these when they see knee to waist-high plants in the nursery and they carry them home. Soon the plant begins to grow vigorously and it must be butchered or cut down. Avoid this problem by searching out the specialty nursery companies that sell the many miniature forms of these evergreens. As they grow extremely slowly and are tricky to propagate, the cost is high; but then you have a specimen that will probably outlive your house and still be in proportion to the garden.
Pines may be pruned so long as you have a high enough ladder to be able to work over the entire tree. In spring the new growth, called a "candle," grows at the ends of all branches. Generally there is a central candle surrounded by several slightly smaller ones. You must preserve this size relationship. If you cut the central candle back half, cut the side ones surrounding it to one-third. If you wish to almost halt the growth of the tree, you may cut all central candles to two or three needle clusters, and the side candles to one or two needle clusters.
Do this pruning when the candles are developed enough so that the needles are beginning to break from their papery sheaths, but before they are fully expanded. A sharp knife is the best tool. Avoid clipping new needles, as the tree will look bobtailed for the next two or three years if new growth is injured. Needless to say, you must work over the entire tree from top to bottom.
Fruit Trees: Look at commercial plantings of fruit trees in your area to determine the form used successfully by commercial people. Apple trees may be pruned to a modified leader system, where a strongly controlled central trunk surrounded by almost equally strong lateral branches makes the scaffold. The other system used for apples is the open-center system, where there is no leader at all but several strong branches at almost the same point, low on the trunk, to form a sort of bowl-shaped scaffold. These same systems are used for peach, apricot and nectarine, though the open-center form is far more common and produces better-
colored fruit.
Plum trees receive a minimum of pruning, just enough to keep them relatively open in the center, and with well-spaced main branches insuring good ventilation throughout the tree and a well-balanced crown. Sour cherries are pruned similarly, and sweet cherries are pruned scarcely at all. All of the cherries and plums are likely to bleed or ooze gum where branches over a year old are removed, so corrective pruning is almost impossible.
The trick in creating first-class fruit trees is to start with a scarcely branched or unbranched (maiden) switch. Determine the pattern it is to take, and prune accordingly. Your County Extension Agent will supply pamphlets on proper pruning for fruit trees in your area. While fruit trees are young, do as much pruning as possible in midsummer. When they have come into bearing, you will be able to remove excess leafy growth in summer but major shaping and balancing will have to be done during the winter months after a few hard freezes.
Pears are a sort of law unto themselves. If you wish to prune and pinch frequently throughout the growing season, you can shape them as open-centered or as modified-leader trees. Otherwise, let them have a leader but prune sufficiently often to prevent too much growth in any season and shorten all side branches frequently.
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