If you are plant loving and know much about plants and gardening then you must have come across two terms pruning and training. Pruning and training are two important process mostly used in balcony garden to fit the plants into a particular size and shape. Plants like heather and shrubby herbs are clipped occasionally to get the desired shape. Shrubs, trees and climbers are formally trained and pruned to get desired shape. Pinching top of the plants support bushy growth; lighter pruning supports more flowers and fruits and hard pruning supports vigorous growth.

Pruning Shrubs

After the flowering shrubs have bloomed, they are cut back in spring or late summer. This will make them free from dead and diseased material and is good for their growth. To avoid wind damage in winter, the stems of a pot grown rose are cut back by half after the first frost.

Pruning Climbers

Mild trimming is needed to shape the Light climbers like ivies. Vigorous flowering climbers like jasmine and honey suckle, generally don't need any pruning, but to keep them healthy it is done to remove the dead and diseased stems. The normal Evergreen climbers are pruned in early spring while deciduous types in winter. Wisteria is pruned two times in a season, once in a mid summer and then in mid winter - cutting the side shoots by 15 cm (6 inches). Climbing rose should be cut back on the side shoots to two or three buds of the main stem. Cut back the rambling rose after first flowering completely. Clematis plants are usually grouped into different types and need variable pruning and training according to their group.

Pruning Soft Fruit Bushes

If you are willing to grow fruit bushes on a small balcony against a sunny wall or trellis, the good way is perhaps to prune a soft fruit bush into a pot grown bush or you can grow two dimensional trained effects. The new side shoots are normally pruned back to the main stem in soft fruit. For proper availability of sunlight to different parts of plants, the trees and soft fruits are grown in fan shape. Cordon and espalier needs strict pruning and training to get the horizontal forms, these forms enable them to produce maximum fruit in limited space. Some books are available in the market on gardening which describes best ways to prune and train plants and fruits.

Pruning to Achieve an Ornamental Effect

You can also provide some ornamental effects if you want with some skills and techniques. To get a topiary effect from fast growing evergreen trailers and climbers, you can train them over wire shapes. Similarly, slow growing, small-leaved evergreens like privet, yew and box, can be clipped into formal shapes. End of the summer is a good time to clip the plants.

Many shrubby or semi shrubby plants like roses, bay trees, fruit trees and fuchsias are trained into classical tall stemmed lollipop form. Different famous standards are followed in balcony containers.