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 | What is pruning?
Pruning is basically cutting off carefully selected parts of a plant to restrict its size, persuade it to grow in a particular shape, encourage more fruit, flowers or stems, or to remove dead or diseased material.
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| Pruning is always seen as one of those ‘deep mysteries’ of horticulture into which you are ‘initiated’ only when you become an ‘expert’.
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| But pruning is neither difficult nor complicated, in fact a lot of it is applying common sense! You just have to follow a few guidelines and check in a book what kind of pruning the particular plant needs. The removal of dead, diseased, broken, crossing and crowded branches is often sufficient for many plants. |
| You simply can’t remember everything there is to know about gardening, so you should never be embarrassed to check any fact in a book. I do it all the time. Visit the Go further section to find a good range of books for beginner gardeners.
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