PRUNING MARECHAL NIEL. 53 
where—on the house, on a fence, on an arch, on an arbour. 
And, naturally, people will want to know how to manage the 
plants in order to get plenty of healthy growth and abundance 
of flowers. 
Maréchal Niel is not a recognised outdoor Rose. It is 
own out of doors, to be sure, in a good many places, and in 
avoured spots often succeeds; but it cannot be relied upon 
to ripen its wood in damp localities, consequently it is liable 
to be badly cut by frost. In districts where a relatively dry 
atmosphere prevails, and in positions where the tree can be 
protected Eetara weather, the Maréchal often lives for several 
years in the open air. 
In the main Maréchal Niel is an indoor Rose, and as such 
we may consider it. Grown,to cover the roof of a cool green- 
house or conservatory, or even for the wall of _a vinery, it 
frequently does splendid service. It is even more successful 
when given a galvanised wire trellis and trained like a Peach, 
its long shoots stretching away 20 feet or more, all brownish 
green and ripe from exposure to sun and air. Thus grown, the 
Maréchal proves what sterling worth is in him, producing every 
spring scores, or even hundreds, of magnificent flowers. 
Time was when Maréchal Niel as an indoor climber was 
pruned on the system which to this day finds favour with the 
majority of people for climbing Roses in general—the system 
of snippety-snip. This. system consists in clipping little bits 
off here and little bits off there, with a rare—a very rare— 
interlude of thinning, in which a whole shoot is removed. 
Times have changed. Snippety-snip no longer rules the roost, 
for it has been found that the Maréchal thrives the best when 
hard pruned back every year. Although this plan of going to 
work has been proved to be far the best in general practice, 
it is very difficult to induce those who have never had experi- 
ence of it to put it into operation. They shake a dubious head 
when advised to prune their Rose back close to the stock, 
obviously oppressed by the fear that the plant would never 
survive such barbarous treatment. I can only say, for the 
benefit of any such who may read these lines, that, although 
it has been my privilege to see the Maréchal under all condi- 
tions of culture, it is only under the cutting-back system that 
IT have seen it in perfection. When pruned back to within a 
bud or two of the stock—which may mean cutting off 20 feet, 
and leaving only 2 inches of each shoot—immediately after 
flowering, new growth has broken at once, shoots have flown 
up with amazing rapidity, and in a few short weeks the space 
| erly occupied has been covered with fresh and healthy 
wood. 
The finest examples that I have ever seen were grown on 
Peach trellises. They had been budded on to Brier stems 
about 2 feet high. They were usually in bloom by Easter, and 
