EXHIBITING. 117 



fully in those steps to be taken to secure a bountiful 

 supply of blooms worthy of the high-sounding- title 

 " Exhibition Roses." Let me, therefore, take it for 

 granted that the reader will study carefully the chapters 

 in this book on planting, pruning, and general culture 

 of the " Queen of Flowers," and I will deal now witH 

 the supreme point — namely, that care of the Rose tree, 

 which will aid the grower in securing blooms of the 

 highest possible standard, and so worthy of the show 

 tent. It is disbudding — disbudding at the right time 

 and in the right way — that will secure a quantity of 

 high-class flowers. I could write a book on this one 

 point. Nature is so prolific that plants responding to 

 treatment demand continual attention, and the grower 

 who, when he is trying to secure certain results, does 

 not achieve them simply because he fails in what I 

 would term his finishing touches, is only throwing 

 away ihis efforts. When generously disbudding the 

 Rose trees of friends I have often been stopped by them 

 as one having some evil or malignant design, yet the 

 same friend will cut a Rose growing upon a stem still 

 crowded with buds, which would have added extra 

 strength in the development of a finer bloom had they 

 but been removed at the right time. 



More buds do not necessarily mean more Roses, 

 for many will not develop ; but they do mean smaller 

 blooms, and often a weaker tree. Take only two 

 varieties, "Clio" and "Robert Duncan." Without 

 disbudding they are of small value, and so it is with 

 many others. But unless we know our varieties here 

 comes m the great danger; if disbudded at the wrong 

 time some will resent such treatment. Too much sap 

 will be suddenly turned into a bud that is not prepared 

 to take it, and the result will be a malformed flower. 

 The best method for the amateur to adopt is to disbud 

 either in the very early or late stages of the growth of 

 the bud, and if there are many buds to remove, they 

 should be thinned out by instalments about every two 

 or three days, giving strong-growing trees a longer 

 interval between the operations. In the case of very 



