PRUNING- 55 



CLIMBERS. 



How few growers when they receive their trees 

 from the nursery in the middle of November ever con- 

 sider after they have planted them that all the climbingf 

 varieties within fourteen to sixteen weeks will have to 

 be cut back. As a rule, we find the grower nailing up, 

 and tying in position, every shoot and rod, and when 

 March comes in no secateurs or knife touches a tree 

 on which at planting time he has bestowed so much 

 care. I sympathise with him, for it is to the un- 

 initiated a great act of faith to cut away often from 

 four to six feet of growth, and in the very place where 

 it is most wanted, then to wait for long months before 

 the tree so hardly done by covers the same space with 

 luxuriant growth. To this day, I must confess, I have 

 often left one, and sometimes two, small rods, a$ 

 countrymen say, ** to draw the sap "; but if, with my 

 knowledge, I did but confess it, it was because I 

 wanted in the early Spring to see some foliage on a 

 bare arch or wall, pillar, or fence to cheer me, and give 

 evidence of the good things to come. 



It is wrong, good reader, for if you desire a strong, 

 healthy tree the same law holds good with newly 

 planted climbers as with dwarfs. I am always very 

 merciful in cutting back, and have found in a severe 

 Spring it has paid. Most experts advise the cutting 

 back to two or three eyes, but four to six is safer, and 

 so rapid is the growth that if the top shoots are cut 

 you have the lower eyes, that will soon break and take 

 their place. If the situation is very sheltered and pro- 

 tection is given against frost and cutting winds, three 

 to four eyes alone can be left. After the first year 

 close pruning will not again be resorted to except for 

 Roses grown under glass, which are treated of in 

 another chapter. The second and third year will con- 

 sist of tying in new wood and the thinning out of 

 weakly growths, but much will depend upon the site 

 to be covered. In the case of a wall, outward eyes 

 will be chosen, and every effort made to bend down 

 branches into a horizontal position. This is best done 

 the second year, the rods or shoots being shortened 



