330 POPULAR GARDEN FLOWERS 



and increase subsequently by propagation from buds or 

 cuttings, (a) Budding. This interesting operation may 

 be practised by any amateur who will bring intelligent 

 practice to bear on the necessary raw material at a 

 suitable time. He can then turn Briers into Roses. If 

 he wants dwarf plants he should insert cuttings of Briers, 

 made of pieces of the current year's growth about eight 

 inches long and deprived of all except the top buds, two 

 inches apart, in September, burying them nearly to the 

 top and treading the soil firmly against them. At the 

 end of a year the plants so raised (which are termed 

 " stocks ") can be planted eighteen inches apart. In the 

 second summer afterwards they should have stems about 

 a third of an inch thick, and buds can be put in them 

 low down. It facilitates getting the buds in later on if 

 the soil is drawn up to the stems in June, as it softens 

 the bark. A quicker way of getting stocks is to take 

 straight Briers about three feet long out of the hedges in 

 November, prune them in root and branch, and plant 

 them eighteen inches apart, but these will be standards, 

 not dwarfs. They will push side shoots in early summer, 

 and buds can be put in these low down, in fact, close to 

 the base, where they spring from the main stem. In 

 either case the time and method of budding is the same. 

 Showery weather from mid-July to mid-August provides 

 a favourable opportunity to bud, as the wet causes a 

 vigorous flow of sap, and the buds are easily mani- 

 pulated. A current year's shoot of the Rose to be 

 multiplied should be cut off, the thin tip removed, and 

 the leaves cropped in to short stumps. An average 

 shoot will yield several buds, as a slice of wood suitable 

 for the purpose can be cut out at each leaf-stalk. The 

 bud nestles at the base of the stalk partly outside and 

 partly inside the bark. The inner part must be exposed, 



