PRUNING STANDARD ROSE-TREES, CLIMBERS, ETC. 199 



heads, for it is useless. The year's gi'owtli upon the top of 

 which the roses come is eighteen inches or two feet long, 

 therefore, all that pruning can do stands for nothing ; plant 

 half-a-dozen handsome standards round them, of graceful 

 hahit, so that the tops of the ugly one, with all the roses, may 

 just ri^e above the handsome ones. If we begin with a dor- 

 mant bud, that is, a rose budded last season, but to start the 

 present one, we should, as soon as it had grown to the third 

 leaf, take off the top beyond it. With a kmdly-growing sort, 

 a branch will start from each leaf, and grow outwards, two on 

 one side the original shoot, and one on the other ; when these 

 had made three good leaves each, we should pinch off their 

 tops also, and three shoots will be produced from each ; by 

 looking to the directions these take, we shaU observe what to 

 do with them. We want them, of course, to point outwards, 

 and at equal distances ; but we may remove altogether any 

 one that grows awkwardly, or does not help our form, and 

 only retain such as answer our notions of what the head 

 should be. During the whole season of growth, we should 

 watch the progress occasionally ; because, if well managed, 

 there will be a good strong growth before the end of the 

 summer. In the next pruning, we may pretty well shorten 

 every branch to two eyes ; and when these start, observe 

 which will make the branch best suited to the intended form 

 of the head, and only retain that ; or if both seem required, 

 keep both. This second year's growth will enable us to form 

 a good head, because the wood will be stronger; and on 

 pruning this second year's growth, we may leave the limbs or 

 branches somewhat longer, so as to form a good head. Instead 

 of cutting back all the branches to any particular number of 

 eyes, we may look more to the length and situation they are 

 to occupy, to help out our plan of the head, than to any 

 number of eyes. Generally speaking, the eyes nearest the 

 end grow strongest ; but when aU the buds begin to grow, 

 every one that grows inside, or points inside, and aU that are 

 not wanted, must be rubbed off before they advance, that all 

 the vigour of the tree may go to the branches allowed to 

 grow. 



Nothing is worse for a rose than a confused mass of branches 

 crossing each other. The inside of the head should be as clear 

 as possible — no branches crossing each other, no small weakly 

 shoots filling up the space. Watch, also, the stock ; for if a 



