STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 87 
But, at the best, the developments of spring were anything but pleasant. June 
roses were killed to within two feet of the ground; all the hybrids quite to the 
ground, and many killed outright. 
On the other hand, I have had my roses several times severely injured by 
heating when they were not covered until the 10th of November. With this 
wide margin how is one to fix upon the best time? Taking the seasons ‘‘ by 
and large,’’ it is probably a reasonably safe plan to peg down roses about the 
last of October, and cover accordiag to circumstances, lightly at first, reserving 
the main amount until severe cold weather sets in, with the precautionary mea- 
sure of having the material at hand in an available condition and not in a frozen 
impenetrable mass in the stable yard. 
Time of Planting. 
I have a strong prejudice against fall planting. June roses may, with extra 
care, be planted with tolerable success at this season, but to try it with Hybrid 
Perpetuals, especially those brought from the east, is thorough nonsense. The 
opinions on this point of our most skillful amateur florists and of some of our 
best professional ones, and which, like my own, rest on a basis of personal ex- 
periments and long experience, coincide fully with mine, that the Hybrid Per- 
petuals require a season’s gro wth to establish the favorable conditions necessary 
to resist the severe and long-continued cold weather of this climate. Our usually 
very dry autumn weather is also a serious obstacle in the way of planting at this 
season. 
As to transplanting from our own gardens, if it is done with a prudent provi- 
sion of a possible 30-degrees-below-zero condition of affairs, it must take place 
when most of the hybrids are in active growth, and, in the case of the fine fall 
bloomers, when they are in bud and flower, and any goose knows better than 
that. 
Pruning. 
In early spring,?with all the Junes and Hybrids, I leave every inch of wood 
that is not winter killed. Immediately after the blooming season of the Junes 
is over, I remove all the old wood that is needful, thus securing all the strength 
for the new ground shoots, of which I permit only a moderate number to remain 
—not more than four or five at most. 
If this old wood were cut out in the spring a vast amount of bloom would be 
lost for no good purpose that I could ever discover. The same process holds 
good for hybrids, except that if the old wood is vigorous and inclines to throw 
out rich blooming shoots, it may well be left, cutting back only to where a strong 
bud breaks. After the new stalks have bloomed I cut them back half or two- 
thirds, and if the season is favorable and they bloom well again, I repeat the 
pruning process twice, getting thereby a fair crop of roses in September. 
Teas, Bourbons and Bengals can scarcely be pruned too closely both in the 
spring and after blooming. The pretty wandering Noisettes shrink from the 
knife, and are best left to grow and bloom at their own sweet will. 
