Ah, Spring—when this gardener gets a grip on his sharper hand tools:  Pruners, loppers, saws. 

True, Spring is when most of my plants can just start growing again, eager and unimpeded by Nature or the gardener.  But many—the favored ones, I think—each have a personal and even intimate Date with Louis.  Our little get-together is a combination visit to the beauty-parlor and the operating suite. 

Clipping, grooming, beheading, amputating:  It's all part of their lives at the Spa Chez Louis.  (For some, even cutting off at the knees isn't nearly fun enough:  We go all the way down to the ankles.)  And the plants love it, because for the rest of the season they never look more stylish, more voluptuous, more colorful, more casual—and yet, miraculously all the while, more in control.  

In these next few weeks, we'll visit some of my Spring, uhm, clients, I mean patients,  I mean victims—I mean stars—to see their make-overs up close.