Article: The kindest cut; Shrubs are growing like wildfire, so keep them under control with a quick prune.

Byline: GRAHAM RICE

WE ALL want two things from our shrubs: they must flower like mad and not get so big that they take over the garden. Pruning is the answer to both these requirements. A couple of weeks ago, I was driving west from New York towards the Delaware river, admiring the spectacular forsythia planted on the roadside. These neat plants were a mass of densely clustered shoots, each packed with brilliant yellow flowers.

Forsythia is pruned in the simplest way: after flowering it should be ruthlessly sheared back with a trimmer, and that's it.

The result is new growth, which, in the poor roadside soil, does not grow lank but stays ...

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