46 FLOWER-GARDEN OF PRUNING, &c. [FEBRUARY. 



height, let them be kept in the most natural and hand- 

 some shape that the taste of the operator can suggest. 

 They will bear cutting to any degree. 



Honeysuckles of every description may with all free- 

 dom be trimmed, providing the frost is not very severe. 

 These are very frequently allowed to become too 

 crowded with wood, and then superficially sheared or 

 cut. The flowers would be much finer, and the bush 

 handsomer, if they were regularly thinned out, divest- 

 ing them of all naked and superfluous shoots. Of those 

 that remain, shorten the shoots of last year. Where 

 any of the honeysuckle kind has become naked at the 

 bottom, and flowering only at the top of the trellis, or 

 extremities of the shoots, one half of the bush should 

 be cut to within, four inches of the ground. It will 

 throw out plenty of fine young wood, which give room 

 for, and train them straight, and to the full extent, 

 during summer. These shoots will flower profusely 

 the following season, and in like manner, when thought 

 proper, the other half can be cut. 



Roses of the hardy kinds (termed garden roses) that 

 were not attended to in November, should, if the wea- 

 ther permit, be dressed and pruned forthwith. In small 

 gardens, where these are generally attached to the 

 walls and fences, neatness should be a very particular 

 object. If any of such bushes have got strong and 

 irregular, the most proper method to bring them to 

 order, will be to cut down each alternate shoot of the 

 bush to within a few inches of the surface, thereby re- 

 novating it, and, in part, preserving the flowers. Those 

 that are cut down will put out several luxuriant shoots, 



