118 THE ROSE GARDEN. 



to smoke the trees with tobacco, using the fumigating bellows, first inclosing the 

 head with some material that will prevent the escape of the smoke. 



In Standard Roses, suckers from the stock often shoot forth, and will impoverish 

 the tree if allowed to remain. They should be watched for, and invariably removed so 

 soon as seen : if proceeding from beneath the ground, it is necessary to remove the 

 soil, for which purpose a spade is best, and cut them off close to the stock whence 

 they spring. If this is strictly attended to for two or three years, they will cease 

 to throw suckers. On the specimen plants here, which are of some age, it is rare 

 that a sucker is seen. 



At the same time that we are on the look out for suckers, it may 

 be well to have an eye on the heads of the trees, to establish a regular growth. 

 Besides the shoots produced at stated periods, in spring, and in summer im- 

 mediately after flowering, it is not unusual, when a plant is in full vigour, for buds 

 that have lain dormant even for a year or two, to burst into life, producing very 

 gross shoots. If such proceed from the Summer kinds, they rarely flower, and, 

 not ripening well, are of little use : if they arise from the Autumnals, a large truss 

 of flowers is often produced, but their quality is quite mediocre. In both cases, by 

 drawing to themselves the nutritive juices of the plant, they weaken the more 

 moderate branches, which are calculated to be of service ultimately. But what 

 shall be done with them ? They are fine shoots, and it seems a pity to destroy them. 

 But if the plant is already well furnished with shoots, it is certainly best to do 

 so, by cutting them off close to their base, so soon as discovered. If, however, there 

 are but few shoots, or a tree is ill-shapen, they may be turned to advantage. 

 Under the latter state of things, pinch out their tops when they have reached 

 an advantageous height, which the looker-on must determine, and thus they may 

 be brought to fill up a scanty tree, or balance a mis-shapen one. But supposing, 

 when such shoots arise, a Summer Rose has an abundance of vigorous shoots, or 

 an Autumnal is scant of bloom, though at the same time in such a state of health 

 and vigour as to warrant us in concluding there is a sufficient command of food 

 to supjDort and develope existing blanches and anticipated flowers ; this may 

 render it advisable to allow such shoots their natural course of growth, when the 

 Autumnals — and here we refer to the varieties of Rosa Indica especially — often 

 terminate with a large cluster of flowers. But remember, the most vigorous shoots 

 in Summer Roses are least likely to fiorcer; in Autumnals they do not produce the 

 best jlowers. 



We would treat these gross shoots in the same way when they arise on Dwarf 

 or Pillar Roses. 



So soon as the flower-buds are formed, if we are seeking large flowers in pre- 

 ference to numbers, it will be well to nip out first those that seem imperfect, and 

 afterwards such as are smallest and most backward. With the Damask Perpetuals 

 and Hybrid Perpetuals, which bloom in clusters, it is well to break out the centre 

 bud, as it is often imperfectly formed, and by its removal more room is made for 



