By Tom Ogren

Like most people who grow deciduous fruit trees (apples, peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, etc.) I used to do lots of serious heavy pruning every winter.Each winter I would head back dozens of those long, tall canes that had grown year before. On some trees, plums in particular, each year I’d often find myself cutting back a huge number of new branches, many of them well over six feet in length. I occasionally wondered: Isn’t this hard pruning cycle putting a big workload on tree? Each summer tree pours all its energy into growing those overly long new branches, and then each winter I’d chop them back, trying to keep tree’s overall height under some semblance of control. And then too, despite my best intentions and hours of work spent pruning, each season trees still seemed to be a bit taller than year before. However, each winter for decades I kept up this hard winter pruning, working with standard conventional wisdom that it was necessary in order to have a decent tree and a good set of fruit. At time it made perfect sense to me. Because of apical dominance, when a tip is cut off, next bud back from what is now tip, this bud will normally sprout next. The topmost bud on any strong branch has high concentrations of natural growth hormone, indole acetic acid (IAA). When we prune grapes (which unlike most pomes and stone fruits, set fruit only on new wood) we have to prune last year’s wood hard. We cut back to a few large, strong buds. The lower down on branch a bud is, larger and stronger it is. Thus, heavy pruning makes plenty of sense with grapes, or others that bloom on new wood, figs, mulberries, and roses. But does this same sort of hard pruning make sense with most fruit trees, trees that do not set their fruit on current season’s wood?

When planning a garden of heather, begin by making an outline of your area first. If you're planning a border, start from back of bed with taller plants and work forward; if bed is to be viewed from all sides, begin sketching your design from center out. If you have room, planting varieties in odd-numbered groups is most effective. Even numbers of plants often make a new garden look too balanced and unnatural. Draw circles outlining area that plants will fill out at maturity (about 3-5 years) growing into a weed smothering mass. Roughly figure 18” spacing when determining how many plants you will need (sq. ft. x .44 is formula) for a large bed. Choose taller growing varieties for back or center of bed and work your way to edges, keeping in mind that plants will grow into a solid mass of foliage leaving little bare ground exposed. Grays and dark greens absorb light; reds, gold and glossy foliage reflect. You want contrasting foliage to define each grouping, so choose a gold or other colored foliage variety, then choose a silver, gray or dark green for next grouping. Flower color is not as important as you may think but offset mauves with white or light pinks if plants are to bloom at same time. Use winter blooming Erica’s' glossy green foliage as a buffer between a lot of Calluna with colored foliage.