Finally, this is the month to prune spring-flowering shrubs.  As with most things horticultural, the reasoning is simple.  Shrubs that have bloomed in the past couple of months will form next year’s flower buds over this summer.  If they had been pruned last March, these flowers would have been sacrificed, as they will if you leave the work until August or later.  There are two simple statements governing the art of kind cuts.  Firstly, we prune to create more or better growth, flowers or fruit, and to control shape and discourage pathogens.  Secondly, the best flowers and foliage occur on younger growth.  To these statements we might add that the harder a deciduous shrub is cut back, the more growth is created.  Such shrubs as Forsythia, Rosa rugosa, Mock Orange, Bridalwreath Spirea and Honeysuckle should be limited to six or so of the youngest branches.  Cut everything older out right down to ground level.  Make sure none of the branches that are left cross each other, lest they rub together, weaken, and eventually snap.  Try to leave each branch equidistant from its neighbor and to replace one of the six with new growth from the base each year thereafter.

Evergreen conifers must also be lightly sheared in early June.  Aim to remove about half of that soft, new growth that was made this spring.  This is the only way to create the dense, lush growth that made them so beautifully full when newly planted.  Pines (those evergreens with very long needles) have new growth called “candles”.  Cut these back by one-half, a sticky but necessary chore.  Use kerosene to remove the resultant mess from clothes, implements and hands.  And after all this, you deserve to go and see how they do it at one of the greatest (and free!) gardens in Toronto, Spadina House up on Austin Terrace, a short walk north of Dupont subway station.  Luckily, their lawns have not been disfigured by the notorious white grubs of the European chafer grub.  These pupated a month earlier this year -in May- and later this month is target time if they are to be effectively controlled.  Unfortunately, chemicals are the only route here.

If you really want to have fun in the sun, there’s a little town in eastern Spain that has nothing to do with fighter jets, sled dogs, or crazed people in the streets with equally crazed bulls.  Since 1944, as many as 20,000 people a year have taken part in the mother of all food fights – the annual La Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain.  The highlight of the celebration is that people pelt each other with about 150,000 ripe tomatoes.  Why?  Because it’s fun.  Admission is free, but after paying for airfare, hotel, meals, transportation and dry cleaning, you’ll want to wing a lot of tomatoes.  For more information, call the Tourist Office of Spain on 212-265-8822.  It’s a perfect chance to get in practice for this November’s civic election.  Splat!

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