38 THE BOOK OF ROSES 



known to even tear the junction between the branch and 

 the main stem or stock and scion. 



If the tree is so formed that the branch cannot be 

 very firmly held immediately below the cut the strain 

 may disturb the roots or strain the stem in a very 

 undesirable way. Where the tree pruned is a "maiden," 

 that is to say, recently budded or grafted, there 

 is a considerable risk of pulling the scion right out of 

 the stock by the pull on the shoot. Of course by the 

 use of secateurs this strain is entirely obviated, the cut 

 being across the stem, with no strain either up or 

 down. 



The time for pruning Roses varies according to variety. 

 The hybrid Perpetuals, both dwarf and standard, 

 together with the hybrid Teas, should be pruned in 

 March ; dwarf and standard Teas and Noisettes in 

 April, while the climbing varieties of all these should, 

 as before advised, be thinned out immediately after 

 flowering and pruned in March. 



It is impossible in the small space at my command to 

 give detailed instructions for the pruning of the many 

 hundred varieties of hybrid Perpetuals, hybrid Teas, 

 Teas and Noisettes, for garden and exhibition. I can 

 only refer the reader in search of such information to 

 the excellent little handbook issued by the National 

 Rose Society, where instructions are given for pruning 

 every well-known Rose. The treatment of some of 

 the classes is, however, rather simpler to explain. The 

 climbing kinds of hybrid Perpetual, Teas and hybrid 

 Teas are treated in much the same way They are 

 allowed to grow naturally, the only attention they need 

 being the removal of the dead wood and enough of the 

 shoots to prevent the plant from becoming over-crowded. 

 Should the base of the plant tend to become bare, as 

 sometimes happens with an old plant, one or two of the 

 best of the shoots from the base should be retained and 



