A New System of Rose-Culture. 149 



A NEW SYSTEM OF ROSE-CULTURE. 



Some of the French and English horticultural journals speak of a new 

 method of growing roses, quite different from any before practised. The 

 essential points are three, — first, to prune out all the old wood ; second, 

 to shorten the new wood very little ; and, third, to peg it down flat to the 

 earth. The rose is allowed to bloom, like a raspberry, only on the wood of 

 the last year's growth ; and this wood is but very slightly pruned. All this 

 is very unorthodox, and contrary to every received maxim. The effect, 

 however, is said to be very fine. The long, young shoots, pegged down to 

 the ground, produce an abundance of flowers from every eye ; while fresh 

 shoots grow up with the greatest vigor from the centre of the plant. These, 

 in turn, are pegged down the next year ; those which had bloomed being 

 first cut away. It seems incredible that roses, under this treatment, should 

 produce as large flowers as under the system of short and severe pruning; 

 but they can certainly be produced in a prodigious abundance. The 

 ground is said to be completely hidden with masses of foliage and blos- 

 soms. The effect of laying the shoots in a horizontal position is to cause 

 the eyes, or leaf-buds, to open from end to end of the stem ; while if it had 

 been left in its natural, upright position, the tendency of the sap to rise 

 would have caused the eyes at the top to open, while those below remained 

 dormant. The new method will probably be found to have one great ad- 

 vantage : the rose will live longer under it than when subjected to very 

 close pruning. This latter practice is sure to result every season in a quan- 

 tity of dead wood, which has to be cut away. Some varieties, when cut 

 near to the ground year after year, rapidly decline, and at length die. 



The plan of long pruning and pegging down was first tried two or three 

 years ago in England and France, and has since been practised with great 

 success by a French cultivator, M. Jean Sisley of Lyons, who describes his 

 experience in the " Revue Horticole." It is well worth a trial here. We 

 mean to try it, and we commend it to all amateurs who have time and 

 patience for experimenting. F. Farhnan. 



