CHAPTER V. 



PRUNING. 



I believe pruning- to be the most important practice in Rose culture, and, at the 

 same time, the most difficult to obtain the mastery over, and to apply with success. 



The difficulty arises chiefly from the extensiveness of the genus, which is made 

 up of varieties differing so much from each other in habit and character. What 

 a striking contrast does the tiny Lawrenceana, which does not usually exceed 

 eighteen inches in height, present to the other extreme of the genus, the Ayrshire 

 and Sempervirens, which will form shoots fifteen feet long in a single year ! And 

 there are kinds of every intermediate degree of vigour and character, and hence 

 the difficulty — the great variation required in the application of pruning. 



But, beyond this, the manner of pruning is partly determined by the object the 

 operator has in view, or by the condition and health of the plant. A Rose in- 

 tended to form a standard would require different pruning to one wanted to form 

 a Pillar Rose, although the variety were the same. When flowers are desired of 

 the largest size, as for exhibition, the plan should differ from that pursued to 

 obtain masses of flowers. Again, a Rose in vigorous condition, when healthy and 

 full of sap, requires less pruning than when, owing to soil, situation, or other 

 causes, it is of moderate or weakly growth. The same degree of pruning applied 

 to each condition would produce opposite results. Close pruning would be the 

 means of improving the health and flowering of a weak tree : it would induce a 

 vigorous one to form wood-shoots only, no flowers. 



From the above remarks it will be seen, that after the fullest and most careful 

 examination of the subject, pruning depending so much on circumstances, a great 

 deal must be left to the judgment of the operator: a certain degree of practice is 

 necessary before any great attainment in this art can be arrived at, and I would 

 not advise the uninitiated to trust himself too far, before he has well marked the 

 manoeuvres of some skilful friend or practitioner. 



I know many instances in which amateurs, who take delight in attending their 

 own Roses, mar the beauty of their trees for want of considering the principles of 

 Rose pruning. Many trees, from too much pruning, grow most luxuriantly, 

 but shew little disposition to flower ; others, from too little pruning, produce 

 abundance of flowers, but they are poor in quality. These arc known facts of 



