Flowering Shrubs at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

These need little pruning other than shaping when young and the removal of branches that cross the plant's center creating congestion and reducing the maturing and ripening influence of the sun. Always cut out pest-and disease-damaged shoots; if left, they encourage the decay to infect and damage other parts. Prune winter-flowering deciduous shrubs as soon as their display is over This gives shrubs the maximum amount of time in which to produce new shoots and for them to ripen before the onset of cold weather in the following fall or early winter It is easier to control the size of winter-flowering shrubs than any other type.

THESE CONTAINERS vary widely in shape and size and the types of plant that suit them. Large Tubs are ideal for shrubs as well as summer-flowering bedding plants and spring-flowering bulbs. Urns are smaller and hold less compost. They are usually more decorative in character and so are perhaps best devoted to summer-flowering plants and displays of bulbs in spring.

At the height of their flowering season in early and mid-summer, rhododendrons are the most spectacular of all flowering shrubs. FOR SHEER display none surpasses the group of varieties known as hardy hybrids. These are also the easiest to grow, for, as tfieir name implies, they are quite hardy and will thrive in either sun or shade and in almost any soil that is not chalky or limy. If chalk or lime is present, they can be grown in specially prepared beds of lime-free loam and peat and they will benefit from an annual spring feeding with iron and manganese sequestrols. All hardy hybrid rhododendrons are evergreen and make dome-shaped shrubs eventually 6-10ft high and as much across. Pruning is not necessary, but overgrown bushes can be cut back in spring, one year's flowers being sacrificed.