PRUNING 35 



into account. When a shoot is cut out, it should be 

 cut clean out to its starting-point on the parent branch 

 or the base of the plant, whereas when pruning the 

 shoot it should be only cut back to a certain bud first 

 selected, from which the new growth will spring, the 

 aim in doing this being both to renew the wood and to 

 keep the plant in a good shape. It must be remembered 

 that as the bud points so will the shoot grow, so that 

 as a general rule a bud pointing outward and upward 

 should be chosen, so that the resulting shoot may take 

 its proper place. It is during the first two or three 

 years that a Rose-tree makes, as it were, its framework, 

 so that it is in these years that the greatest care must 

 be taken over the training of its shape. 



Autumn-planted Roses will need pruning in the follow- 

 ing Spring, while if planted in the Spring they should be 

 cut back at once. At this time they should be very 

 severely pruned, being cut down to within 3 or 4 

 inches of the ground, even the climbing sorts which 

 afterwards need little or no pruning being cut down to 

 a foot high. 



When pruning Roses for garden decoration, that is 

 to say, when plenty of good flowers are desired rather 

 than a few perfect ones, the following rules will be 

 found to apply to all varieties. All shoots which are 

 either dead or dying, together with all unripe and sappy 

 wood should be cut clean away from the base, and in 

 pruning the shoots meant to bear flowers in the current 

 year they should be cut back to an outward pointing 

 bud. The Roses called " summer flowering," which 

 class includes all those which bloom only once in the 

 year, will be found to need thinning and training rather 

 than pruning, and their shoots should be shortened 

 according to their age, the last year's shoots being left 

 almost untouched, the two-year-olds shortened a little, and 

 the three-year and older wood cut back sternly. Too 



