IRISH GARDENING 



35 



and habit amongst some of the choicest Hybrid 

 Teas. You have the tall upright grower, like 

 Pharisaer, the branchy bushes of Caroline 

 Testout ; again, we have Hybrid Teas like 

 Joseph Hill, Madame Abel Chatenay, and 

 Madame Melanie Soupcrt. these will persist- 

 ently and perversely grow lob-sided, throwing 

 up late in the summer a strong single shoot. 

 These latter are very difficult varieties to know 

 how to prune. Then we have those glorious 

 single varieties, Irish Elegance, Irish Flame, 

 Simplicity, &c, and yet another the strong 

 growing exhibition Rose, such as Bessie Brown 

 Then we have the branching and untidy habit 

 of the Lyon Rose, and perhaps, lastly, we have 

 the Mildred Grant and Lady Helen Vincent type 

 of short, stumpy, almost twiggy growth. All 

 these various Roses, and there are many others 

 like them which I have not mentioned, will 

 require separate treatment. No one would 

 dream of pruning a Caroline Testout and Lady 

 Helen Vincent the same way. but when we come 

 to think of it it only requires a little common 

 sense and thought. 



With the Lady Helen Vincent type I would 

 recommend taking out first the dead wood, of 

 which, unfortunately, there is often a consider- 

 able amount, and cut the live stems very nearly 

 ti the ground. Two or three buds will be ample 

 to leave. Do not spare the knife with Hybrid 

 Teas of this type. When you come to prune 

 Hybrid Teas of the less spreading type, like the 

 Lyons, opinions differ. Some recommend hard 

 pruning, others light pruning. I think that the 

 position that these Roses are planted in will 

 largely decide the kind of pruning we should 

 give them. If, as they should be, they are all 

 grown together in one bed, then I would recom- 

 mend tolerably light pruning. 



Dealing with the single variety class, I think 

 there are not anything like enough of this class 

 grown. They should certainly be let grow into 

 fair sized bushes. Do not on any account mix 

 them up with their brothers and sisters. Keep 

 them absolutely by themselves, and. if possible. 

 in a more shady part of your Rose garden, and 

 then the lovely coppers, pinks and scarlets will 

 retain their colour better. 1 would recommend 

 the pruning done to these being confined to the 

 removal of unripened shoots and dead wood, 

 together with a little shortening of the long 

 summer growths. It must be remembered that 

 this class of Rose gets pretty severe pruning and 

 cutting all through the summer, as they are 

 generally cut away for decorative purposes, in 

 almost branches at a time. I had last year a 

 bed of Irish Elegance which gave me three 

 distinct successions of bloom. 



We now come to the most difficult type of 

 Hybrid Teas to prune, as mentioned already — 



namely, the Joseph Hill, Chatenay and Melanie 

 Soupert class. It is not usually till the autumn 

 that this long rod with a pannicle of bloom is 

 shot up by these varieties. What then is to be 

 done with this when March comes round ? 

 Personally 1 always prune it the same as the 

 side growths, as I do not like the pegging down 

 system. 



In the case of Abel Chatenay I would recom- 

 mend your readers, even though I do not carry 

 it out myself, to peg down these long growths, 

 as, in addition to saving the greater part of this 

 long rod and getting blooms off it, this treat- 

 ment will induce growths from the base of the 

 plant. 



1 am afraid, however, your readers will find 

 it difficult to treat Joseph Hill this way. as the 

 rods are quite too stiff and are very liable to 

 break : however, they can be bent down to a 

 considerable angle, and if one does not object 

 to the rather untidy appearance of pegged down 

 shoots. I would recommend this course to bo 

 adopted. 



The tall upright growers like Pharisaer and 

 the vigorous branching habit of Caroline Testout 

 may be considered together. Their treatment 

 will chiefly depend on the room available. If 

 they are by themselves, anr 1 not mixed up with 

 a lot of dwarf growers, then by all means let 

 them " run " a bit. 



I saw a splendid example of this at Messrs. 

 Hugh Dickson's at Belmont, Belfast, last July. 

 There 1 saw a very large round bed entirely 

 filled with Caroline Testout, fully six feet high. 

 Mr. Dickson told me he had cut many of his prize 

 blooms off this bed, and that he did practically 

 no pruning beyond keeping the centre of the 

 bushes fairly clear, cutting out dead and unripe 

 wood, and tipping back the healthy growths. 

 However, the ordinary Rose grower has not 

 space like this to give up to such rapid growth, 

 but for all that, do not prune Caroline and her 

 kind too hard. 



We now come to the Tea Roses, which should 

 not be pruned till April. This class is what we 

 may call the excitable one. The true Tea Rose 

 remains in bloom longer than any other variety. 

 I say true, because I think even some of our 

 leading growers admit that we have now Roses 

 classed as Teas which are much more like 

 Hybrid Teas — take, for instance, Molly Sharman 

 Crawford, Freiherr von Marschall and Harry 

 Kirk. I cannot help thinking that the classi- 

 fication of a great many of our Roses wants 

 revising, and I have heard that question dis- 

 cussed with several of the leading amateurs and 

 members of the trade. Let us hope therefore 

 that at no distant date this will be taken in hand. 

 However, this hardly comes within the scope of 

 my present article. As I said, the Teas are 



