PRUNING DWARF HYBRID PERPETUALS. 45 
He need not, however, on that account go and tell the 
beginner that the ideal pruning for every Rose is to cut it 
close to the ground line every spring. A large number of 
Roses which are grown in good soil throw out strong, sub-climb- 
ing shoots. It is barbarous to cut these to the ground every 
year. If slightly shortened and kept well apart, so that the 
side shoots which they throw have room to extend without 
crowding, they will give a succession of very fine flowers. 
Pruning Dwarf Hybrid Perpetuals. 
To point this plea for moderate pruning, and at the same 
time help the fair grower who, hitherto averse from pruning 
at all, is now driven reluctantly to ask for practical guidance 
in the hateful duty, it will be well to refer to an illustration 
which may help to teach the happy medium in pruning. 
In Fig. 19 (p. 43) is an interesting study in Rose pruning on 
the “moderate” system. In A we have a two years old 
plant. As a maiden it was shortened at the point shown by 
the letter a, which will be found in the lower part of the open 
space in the centre of the bush. At the time of shortening 
there were five bold buds visible on the lower part of the stem, 
and each of these pushed a shoot, represented by the letter e. 
But there are six of these letters instead of only five. Where 
has shoot number 6 come from? It has sprung from a bud 
which, being just beneath the surface of the soil, was not ob- 
servable at pruning time. 
We shall come back to the letter e in order to see what the 
cuts mean. In the meantime, let us examine the letters }, c, 
and d. The first letter, b, indicates where the bush flowered 
for the first time in June, and the shoots which bore the 
flowers were lightly shortened. The second letter, c, shows 
where the bush flowered for the second time, perhaps in 
September or October. The third letter, d, indicates how 
shoots started in early spring from the growths which flowered 
in autumn. 
Now it will be clear from this that we have to regard the 
bush as consisting of two parts—the part (upper growth), 
above e, which gave us leaves and flowers one year, and the 
part (lower stumps) below e, which we are going to make use of 
to give us the leaves and flowers of the next year. There 
is a dividing line in this bush, and that dividing line is the 
letter e. All above e has served its purpose; we now get rid 
of it, and rely on the stumps below e to give us a new bush. 
We may pause for a moment to consider what would 
happen if we left this line of demarcation altogether out of 
account, and kept the bush with the shoots b, c, d intact. In 
other words, if we abandoned pruning altogether. 
