IRISH GARDENING 



45 



Roses. 



By ODoNEL Browne, M.D. 



o 



jXCE more we have that difficult 

 but happy task in front of us, 

 and the sooner it is over with 

 us the happier we are. I refer, of 

 course, to pruning". To the person, 

 however, who has tended his plants 

 carefully since they were \"ounjf it does 

 not become a bore to just put all thing's 

 ship-shape, but to a man or woman 

 (and here in pruning I find the ladies 

 sadly err by petting- their trees almost 

 as much as their hair) who has in past 

 years gfone at his trees in a lazy 

 JA' -^'^BM happy-gfo-lucky style, there is plenty 

 ^ — "^ ™ of work to put all things square. All, 

 however, cannot be rectified by March 

 and April pruning ; though these 

 operations tend to put matters on the 

 right road to recovery, it needs still 

 the careful use of knife and finger in 

 May to put more finishing touches. 

 Till the crack oi doom comes I suppose 

 we will meet with growers who want 

 all and everything et nunc et in perpetuo. 

 C">nly this week a lady remarked to me 

 e'^^ that she had ordered some trees — 

 ^•limbers — with grand 'ong" rods 



guaranteed, eight feet long. Vou should have 



seen her face when I said " so much the more 

 to cut away next month." Her ambition was 

 to let these rods flower up this year, to supply 

 enough for her vases. Poor, sad. deluded lad\-, you 

 must, I fear, foreswear your pleasure this year, and 

 instead of cutting flowers, cut those rods as hard as 

 \our enemy, if you have one, would ! Never will I forget 

 a patient (in every sense of the word) showing me two 

 plants of Lady Gay, newly planted, tied — aye, even 

 the twiggiest growths — to a lovely lattice work on a 

 verandah. How she had the patience to keep at them 

 I do not know. When I got to work I left nothing but 

 a few inches over ground and the rest to wither. 

 " My poor trees !" was what I heard. ''What have you 

 done?" "Wait and see," and sure enough in a year or 

 two that verandah will be covered. And so it is 

 smothered with hanging sprays of Lady Gay. No 

 need to tell that person a second time what to do with 

 newly-planted climbers. In future years that tree does 

 not require such drastic operations — merely remo\ing 

 that which is not wanted is quite sufficient. Dwarf 

 plants are just the same, with the great exception that 

 if }ou contemplate having good flowers your first \ear 

 you must cut heavily, for, as a general rule, good 

 flowers come on good wood. Mellier, in his admirable 

 book, lays down the maxim in a few words with the 

 Kast Anglian expression " no man should hoc his own 

 turnips," when he speaks of rose pruning, meaning b}- 

 this that over-crowding of shoots is a bad principle, 

 and from what I have seen of some ardent rosarians, 

 I should be sorry to let them at my trees. It is hard 

 lo cut some trees of certain varieties too hard, and even 



varieties like La France are all the better every second 

 or third year of a good going over to remove the old 

 worn out wood and to encourage new growths. 



Those of us who have stocks budded last year should 

 attend to them now. Dwarfs, whether on cutting or 

 seedling, require all the wild growth removed about 

 one inch over the bud, cutting through the stock, but 

 leaving this piece to tie our supporting stake to when 

 the rose bud starts to push. Standards should have all 

 wild growths removed, save and excepting the growths 

 carrying the downard bud. These laterals should be 

 shortened to a few wild eyes, and a stake should be 

 securely tied to the briar to support the stock and the 

 future rose when it pushes. Should any maiden have 

 pushed into growth last year, it is a wise course to 

 remove it almost back to where it sprang, and to 

 encourage the buds at the base of the rod to plump up. 

 swell and push. A good application of some chemical 

 manure may advantageously be given to all rose beds 

 where there are established rose trees growing - holding 

 your hand to newly-planted varieties and to maidens 

 until they have made some good growth. Surfaces of 

 beds should be worked at to get the upper few inches 

 into a light crumbly nature, and the hoe should be kept 

 going from this date until the end of the season. I 

 I don"t think it wise to dig or fork beds — a spade run 

 along the surface of the bed and parallel with it can do 

 no harm, but avoid sinking it deeply. A good deal of 

 nonsence, in my humble opinion, has been written re 

 the use of a good pair of secateurs or pruning shears ; 

 I never used anything else, and find no harm. Indeed 

 I find a knife working its way through a tough old 

 growth is more liable to do mischief than a sharp cut 

 of a good shears. 



^* ^^ t^* 

 L\ the current number ( February) oi the Jon Dial of the 

 (English) Board of Agriculture there is an important 

 article on " Experiments in Potato Growing," by Henry 

 Henshaw, Superintendent of the Farm in connection with 

 the Cambridge University. Amongst other matters it 

 refers to the great benefit arising from change of seed, 

 and gives clear experimental evidence of such benefit 

 to the grower. We will again refer to this subject. 



I\ a recent number of the Keiv Bulletin Mr. Massee 

 calls attention to the frequent occurrence of galls or 

 tumours on the roots of various plants, and mentions 

 cases of plum, rose, raspberry, loganberry and 

 chrysanthemum as having come under his own 

 observation. The disease; is known as "crown-galls," 

 because they first appear near the crown of the root. 

 The cause is believed to be due to the attack of a 

 species of slime-fungus allied to that found in the club- 

 root of turnips, cabbages, and other crucifers. Its life 

 history has been worked out by Toumey, who has 

 named it Dendrophagiis globosiis. It is a contagious 

 disease, seedlings being especially prone to its attack. 

 It is very destructive to nursery stock, as it rapidly 

 kills ofl' whole rows of seedlings. Although it may not 

 kill older trees, yet it appears to bo bad economy not 

 to uproot and clear the groiuiil of ihem. Heavy 

 applications of quicklime workeii into the soil seems to 

 be the onlv known remed\-. 



