VI PRUNING 99 



smaller than the first one ; and so the whole life of 

 the shoot is a failure — it has not produced one Rose 

 worthy of the name, and yet it and the plant have been 

 exhausted by flower formation more than if the buds 

 had been properly thinned to one or two and a glorious 

 bloom had been obtained and cut. 



Those who grow Roses merely to enjoy their beauty 

 without any thought of exhibiting them will find 

 that this thinning of the buds makes an immense 

 difference to the quality and beauty of their blooms, 

 and will give them, in the case of many varieties, really, 

 fine flowers instead of a mere mass, wherein are some 

 dead, some overblown, some not out, and all poor. I 

 can never pass such a great head of buds in a neigh- 

 bour's garden without my fingers instinctively longing 

 to be at them, and ease the struggling competing 

 crowd. 



It should be remembered that the production of fruit, 

 flowers, or even flower buds, has just the opposite effect 

 upon the constitution of a plant to that which is given 

 by the growth of shoots and leaves. In the latter case 

 the plant is growing, and the roots are increasing in 

 proportion to the leaves. But in the former case the 

 plant is engaged in reproduction, which is to some 

 extent weakening and exhausting. So all lovers of 

 flowers should bear in mind that as the removal of 

 leaves, to any considerable extent, weakens a plant, so 

 the cutting off of flowers or buds strengthens it. We 

 should never be afraid to cut Rose-blooms : we sometimes 

 hear " Oh ! I thought it was a pity to cut that splendid 

 Rose on that little plant," when as a matter of fact it 

 was still more a pity to leave it. 



A large head of clustered Rose-buds is a great strain 

 on the root and the plant, and the sooner this strain is 



H 2 



