Do I cut off the dead flowers of my pyracantha ?

If you don't want the berries yes, if you do leave them

m5eaygeoff wrote:

If you don't want the berries yes, if you do leave them

I guess I am sleepy, but... I didn´t get the meaning.
If you want the berries you should *leave* the flowers alone, isn´t so?
Mine, for instance, is blooming right now. I want the berries, so I will not cut the flowers.
Or am I wrong here?

I do not see any controversy in the two ways to say the same thin.

"If you want berrys don't cut the flowers off" is just as valid as "If you want berries leave the flowers on".

Not easy in a forum where most people is not native english speakers.

You are right, Tropfrog.
I haven't understood the phrase the way it was intended. My bad, Geoff.

Tropfrog wrote:

Not easy in a forum where most people is not native english speakers.

I teach math and related topics to mostly native speakers of English. Most of them have a lot of trouble understanding the logic of this kind of statement. Explaining it is also sort of hard, because most natural languages aren't built for logic.

A lot of things are very obvious once we know them, but not very obvious until then. A very common English phrase is, "Why didn't I think of that?"

"Why are leaves falling of my tree in October?" for example.

Sorry Ivan, I don't quite getting what you are trying to say. I was just clearing an obvious missunderstanding. Do you mean language is not to blame or something else?

I do teach logic in my native language. Not that I am very good at languages, but I don't see any limit in my language for explaining logic. In english however it is not that easy for me. I allways thought it had to do with my limited language skills, not the language itself.

I could have written a bit more, -if you want the berries then do not cut the flowers off sounds better