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Pruning: Japanese

HEDGES. Most hedge plants, such as the Japanese barberry and the privet, if allowed to grow as specimen plants unrestrained by severe pruning, will produce a considerable quantity of flowers and also of fruit. This is especially true of the Japanese barberry, which has interesting fruit. If these plants are grown in hedges, which are subject to frequent and severe trimming at least three or four times during the growing season, then all of the flowers are surely removed and if the flowers are not removed, then at the time of the next pruning the fruit is removed, therefore very few of the hedges of this character ever produce any fruit. The only way in which to have a hedge such as a Japanese barberry hedge, with a quantity of fruit upon it, is to prune the hedge during the very late winter months or early spring months and not to prune it again until after the fruiting season is over.