OUTDOOR ROSE GROWING 



Roses will differ in growth and the strongest 

 growers will naturally throw out more buds on any 

 given length of cane than the weaker. In addition 

 to this, plants of low, spreading growth, whose canes 

 grow more or less parallel to the ground, do not send 

 their sap as quickly to the ends of the growth as do 

 plants whose canes are more upright. For this reason 

 different varieties require somewhat different prun- 

 ing, and in the lists are given the number of eyes 

 or buds to which each variety should be cut back, 

 provided, of course, the wood has not been winter 

 killed below the point indicated. Returning to the 

 theory of the sap and the illustration of the cane 

 with fifteen buds: Cut off, say, ten of these buds 

 from the cane and the five remaining will receive 

 just so much more sap and there will be that much 

 more chance of the lowest buds breaking and sending 

 out their shoots. If the cane were not cut, the greater 

 part of the sap would go to the few top buds and the 

 lower buds would be late in growing, some possibly 

 not breaking at all. Nature prunes the weaker varie- 

 ties by killing back a portion of their wood, thus 

 causing them to throw up strong new canes. 



It will readily be understood that the larger the 



cane and the hardier and more vigorous the plant, 



the more buds could be left with still a chance for 



their breaking; conversely, the weaker the variety 

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