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i Violets
1 A broad band of viojets makes a I delight,ful border for a cottage j walk. Violets do best, In a soil consisting of four parts light porous ! t earth and one part well-rotted cow : 1 manure with enough lime added to make a definitely alkaline reaction.
| Since violets increase rapidly when : grown under proper conditions they ' should be lifted, divided and reset every third year. The plants should be placed about eight inches apart , with the top of the crown above ; ground. The chief enemies of vio- ! lots are the blue-black grubs of the ; violet saw-fly, which eat the leaves j at night, and the ?wooley bear,? a
Flowering Shrubs
Trees and shrubs that flower in the spring should not be pruned at ythis time, except to keep them ' within bounds for buds have already been	formed	and cutting
away wood now will mean decreasing spring bloom. These plants are best pruned Immediately after the flowering season.
t Summer-flowering trees may be (pruned now.	Crape	myrtles	can	'
i stand severe	pruning	because	the	;
' blooms appear on the	ends of	new	;
growth. Drastic pruning of most j shrubs usually means the produc- 1 tion of many new twigs, sometimes i at the expense of flowers and fruit. ! The best way to induce a profusior of flowers is to prune back the vegetation in midsummer just before the buds form. This will throw the strength of the plant into the production of flowers rather than into supporting an undue amount of foliage.
Root pruning, cutting down with a spade in a circle around the trunk, often increases tile output oi flowers by cutting off wide-spreading feeder roots and concentrating the root mass closely at the base of the plant. This checking of root growth also checks the growth oi foliage.
Hedges can be cut back now to a little less than the desired height to force thickening of the outside.. Poinsettias and bananas shouldn't be cut back severely until danger of a freeze is past.