40 THE BOOK OF ROSES 



from ripened wood, so that these should be selected and 

 cut back to about 9 inches or a foot long. Rosa Alba 

 should be pruned in early March. 



The Scotch Briars should be pruned in March. They 

 should be hardly touched, needing very little pruning. 

 The healthy young suckers from the base should be 

 shortened, so as to clothe the stem, and the worn-out 

 wood and very weakly shoots removed. About 3 feet 

 is a good height for these Roses. 



The Austrian Briars are also pruned in March, and 

 these need rather different treatment from the preceding 

 Roses, as in their case much of the bloom is produced 

 on two- and three-year-old wood. In such a case as this 

 only the dead wood should be cut out, and one- two- and 

 three-year wood left. One of the Austrian Briars, 

 Soleil d'Or, bears its flowers on the shoots of the 

 current year's growth, and may therefore have its shoots 

 left about 2 feet long, and may be more severely pruned. 

 It should not be much thinned or much of the season's 

 bloom will be lost. 



The Ayrshire Roses should be pruned in February ; 

 or rather they should be thinned and cleared from dead 

 wood, as they need no actual pruning, and this applies 

 also to the hybrid Noisettes and hybrid Musks. Thin 

 out the older wood only, and arrange the new wood so 

 as to keep the plant well shaped. 



The hybrid Bourbons bloom on old wood, so that 

 much of the three- and two-year-old wood should be 

 left, together with fairly long lateral shoots. The best 

 of the shoots from the base should be retained, and the 

 bush left about 4 or 5 feet high. These are pruned in 

 March. 



The Banksian Roses require no pruning at all for the 

 first three years, as the blooms are produced on the 

 lateral shoots from ripened wood. In the case of old 

 plants it may be necessary sometimes to cut severely 



