60 PEUNING. 



WEEPING ROSES. 



Weeping- Roses are vijg-orous climbing varieties 

 with drooping habit, such as Dorothy Perkins, 

 Hiawatha, Minnehaha, Ruby Queen, and many others. 

 These are budded on to tall briars of from six to nine 

 feet high, and are pruned so as to secure growth in 

 umbrella shape reaching to the ground. I have seen 

 Helene " budded on to an eight-foot standard and 

 trained to form a bower of Roses that you could com- 

 fortably sit under. 



To form a good weeping Rose you must have a 

 wire trainer, such as is supplied by John Pinches, of 

 Crown Street, Camberwell. This enables you to tie 

 in the shoots and to keep them in place at equal dis- 

 tance round the tree, drooping towards the ground. 

 It is also a protection against severe winds, which may 

 easily blow the head off so tall a stem. Having 

 planted your weeper to a tall stake crowned with your 

 wire trainer, prune back all shoots to about one-third 

 their length, or less. I have always found it wisest to 

 be able to bend down and tie in a portion of the first 

 year's wood, and not to risk too severe a pruning, such 

 as the cutting back to three or four eyes, w^hich I con- 

 sider unnecessary with many of the rampant growers. 

 Still, prune you must, and remove weakly shoots at 

 planting. The second year's growth should be tied in, 

 and, while the main shoots are only shortened, say, 

 from six inches to a foot, or a little more, according to 

 the growiih and shape of the tree, all the laterals should 

 be pruned to secure abundance of bloom right to the 

 ground. The object is to get main shoots to the 

 ground and keep them there, and not cut them back 

 again. It is quite sufficient to thin out and remove 

 dead wood until the tree gets too old, when it may be 

 cut back and entirely new growth encouraged. 



STANDARDS. 



In pruning standards and half-standards every- 

 thing depends upon the variety and its habit of growth, 

 for, while you desire a shapely head, yet bloom is the 

 first consideration. Close pruning is essential the first 



