CLIMBERS 



will hardly be necessary in the following spring to 

 do more than cut out the dead wood and keep the 

 plant within the prescribed bounds, which may be 

 determined by the arbor or trellis on which it is 

 grown. The new canes springing from the base 

 which have grown during the previous season 

 should remain untouched, excepting that the ends 

 or tops of the longest canes should be somewhat 

 shortened. The same process used in pruning re- 

 cently planted Hybrid Teas applies in the case of 

 newly-planted Wichuraiana, and especially weaker- 

 growing climbers planted the previous autumn, 

 viz., pruning back "wickedly" in the spring to a 

 few eyes. This gives the roots less work to do and 

 insures good growth for the following year. It gives 

 no chance for flowers during the first summer, but at 

 best the blooms on a newly-planted climber would be 

 poor; the great point is that such cutting back gives 

 the plant a better chance to become established and 

 secures good flowering wood the second year and 

 thereafter. But, if you insist upon trying for some 

 flowers the first summer on newly-planted stock, be 

 sure that such climbers as you do not cut back have 

 well-established root systems with fibrous feeding 

 roots and that they were planted the previous autumn, 

 their root systems having been noted at that time. 

 Under no circumstances should we advise allow- 



77 



