Hibiscus blooms in August, a rarity, with flowers that are large and purple, or rose-pink or white. It grows to 12 feet if unpruned. Hydrangea, another shrub with large blossoms blooming in July and August, is a showy bush, with big blue globe-shaped clusters.

Honeysuckle bushes are useful for mass planting. Some varieties are especially enjoyable because they blossom in February and March. Several spirea varieties are found to be useful as screen plantings, particularly because of their dense growth and abundant flowering. Anthony Waterer spirea is a 2-foot bush with white or rose-pink clusters.

Bridal wreath has profuse white clusters in May. Spirea Thunbergii also has white flowers, and Spirea Vanhouttei, 8 feet high with dense white flowers, is used as a living fence.

Viburnum (the popular snowball) is 10 to 12 feet high at maturity and is used for high foundation, screening and hedges. It has white snowball-shaped flowers and foliage turns crimson in fall.

Weigela is popular, too, in many varieties, including variegated weigela, a dwarf shrub with rose flowers and variegated silvery leaf. There is also Weigela rosea, with rosy trumpet-shaped flowers, and new brilliant cardinal shrub.

How to prune plum trees - 2 or 3-year-old

If tree has been purchased as a 2 or 3-year-old, it is advisable to defer pruning for one year after planting. The branch system of such a tree will already have been formed. After framework of tree has been formed, subsequent pruning will consist of cutting out dead and diseased wood, badly placed wood crossing, or too upright growth, and ensuring that growth remaining is well spaced.

How to prune plum trees - Drooping varieties

Certain varieties have a drooping habit. Although during early years this factor need not influence pruning unduly, as tree becomes established drooping tendency will be more pronounced.

It will be necessary to prune branch leaders to an upward-pointing bud, and not to an outward one, as in upright growing varieties. Similarly, lower branches will hang down, and may have to be shortened eventually to a more suitable subsidiary branch.

How to prune plum trees - Silver Leaf Disease

This serious disease of Plums enters tissues through open wounds and cuts. It is able to do so during winter and most readily infects wood through large cuts which expose heart. During formation period of tree, pruning can be carried out in early Spring, as cuts are relatively small.

On established trees, however, it is better to defer pruning until late Spring or Summer, and to perform this operation during dry weather, especially where large wounds are made.

The natural gums exuded at this time assist healing. Broken branches should be sawn off neatly, and all large wounds protected with white lead paint. Always use a sharp, curved blade knife, or a good pair of secateurs, for pruning. Avoid "jagged" cuts, which can lead to damage, and do not cut too closely to topmost bud.