CHAPTER XVIII 



PRUNING ROSES 



There are few things connected with Rose culture 

 so little understood by amateurs and gardeners 

 generally as pruning ; and it must be acknowledged 

 that the number of different kinds of Roses, and the 

 very different treatment many of them require at the 

 hands of the pruner, cannot but make this operation 

 seem at first sight a very puzzling one. The following 

 simple directions will, however, serve to show that 

 it is not nearly so complicated as it is generally 

 thought to be. 



Mr. W. F. Cooling, in an excellent paper read 

 before the National Rose Society in 1898, very 

 cleverly separates the numerous classes of Roses into 

 two broad and distinct divisions. In the first of these 

 divisions he places the Hybrid Perpetuals, Hybrid Teas, 

 and Teas — all of which (the climbing varieties alone 

 excepted) require more or less hard pruning ; while 

 in the second division we find the Hybrid Sweet-briers, 

 the Austrian Briers, all the extra vigorous and climb- 

 ing Roses and many garden or decorative Roses, 

 which, although of comparatively dwarf habit, need 

 little spring pruning, or none at all. 



Before proceeding to treat of the various kinds 

 of Roses more in detail it may be well to point out 



