THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



is all right enough — I have said the same thing myself. 

 But you are to observe, please, that it applies to estab- 

 lished plants, and that I am now speaking of newly- 

 planted ones. 



Some quick-witted reader may throw my parallel 

 about the burdened horse and the character of the road 

 at me, and demand to know why what applies to pillar, 

 arch, wall, and pergola Roses should not apply to dwarfs 

 and standards also. I admire the sharpness, but I ask 

 the critic to think a moment longer. Ah I he sees it, of 

 course. We want something clothing that pillar, that 

 arch, that wall, that pergola, from the very first, if we can 

 get it. And we are so anxious that it should not go bare 

 a moment longer than is necessary, that where we can 

 strain a point we do. 



The lateral shoots of all dwarf and standard Roses 

 should, I think, be pruned back to within three or four 

 buds of the base soon after planting, whatever the soil, 

 and whatever the variety. This severe early pruning 

 is like the billiard player's "miss in baulk." It is a 

 policy of avoiding risks. It is "playing for safety." 

 At billiards our opponent may reply with another safety 

 miss, but Nature never does that with Roses. She 

 responds with bold play. She lays herself down to 

 work, and plays sweeping strokes with power and pre- 

 cision. The little buds on the stumps which we have 

 left soon break into stems and green leaves. They are 

 an inch long, six inches, a foot; there are actually 

 flowers ! And all in a few short weeks. 



The Early Pruning of Established Roses. — With a 

 mild February, the Roses which we already have in the 

 garden may be fairly in growth when March opens ; 

 indeed, in mild districts they are almost certain to be 

 moving. Naturally, the question of the annual pruning 

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