"Henry" wrote in message
...
Vox Humana wrote:
They prune shrubs at the wrong time and complain that they
aren't getting many flowers.

This one always gets me. There are some folks near me with very nice
forsythia hedge. They keep it cut to about 1 1/2 feet high, pruning it
off and on including late in the fall. In the spring, while all their
neighbors have splashes of yellow and they could have a wonderful line
of color the entire width of their front yard, they get an occasional
flower or three. I'm not crazy about forsythia but it does give us a
nice display early in the spring. But without the week of flowers,
what's the point?

The forsythia are about done here, but every spring when they bloom I make a
mental note to get one for my mixed shrub border. Most of the year they are
pretty ordinary, but one would be a nice splash of color in the early
spring.

On a more positive note (for me), the above mentioned neighbors got tired of
their lilac that never bloomed so they decided to remove it. I offered to
do the job if they gave it to me and they were happy to be rid of it without
any work. It looked pretty sorry last year, but it is nearly ready to burst
into bloom. When it is fully covered with flowers, I want to show it to
them so they can see how good it looks without the ill timed pruning.