Pruning Disbudding. 107 



be in part done away with by practising disbudding, i.e., rubbing or cutting out some 

 of the buds when swelling in spring. The Rose when in robust health throws forth a 

 great number of shoots during the season of growth, and the merciless havoc that is 

 made with them in the pruning season must, by the waste it creates, and by the 

 wounding of the plant, prove highly injurious. True, it is necessary some should be 

 removed when such numbers are there ; but why are so many suffered to grow ? It is 

 questionable whether the theory of branches and leaves elaborating the crude sap, and 

 thereby fitting for assimilation a greater quantity of food, is in favour of their develop- 

 ment. A few vigorous branches with healthy well-developed leaves must, I think, 

 better accomplish this end than a great number crowded together, the leaves becom- 

 ing puny and sickly through the exclusion of air and light. Now, by rubbing out a 

 portion of the buds when swelling, and others at any season when they may sprout 

 forth in a position where shoots are not wanted, the remaining buds form stronger 

 shoots ; and thus, perhaps, a larger certainly a healthier surface of foliage is the 

 result. Further, if the nutritive matter which has been supplied in the development 

 and sustenance of numerous branches is confined to a lesser number these will be 

 more powerfully developed, and the loss by removal and the injury the tree suffers 

 by thinning will be avoided. / believe disbudding to be the system best calculated to 

 produce flowers in the finest possible condition, to keep a plant in full health and vigour, 

 and to bring it to the highest pitch of beauty. It has been successfully applied in the 

 cultivation of other trees, and why should it not answer when applied to Roses. But 

 it does answer, and, as one fact is said to be of more weight than a load of argument, 

 I will relate an experiment commenced in the spring of 1844. I marked at that 

 season from 50 to 100 Dwarf plants, which were budded in the previous Summer ; 

 consequently they were what is termed in bud. My object was to test the efficiency 

 of disbudding. They were intended to be grown in pots for exhibition, and each 

 plant possessed two sound healthy buds formed closely together. Two buds were in 

 this instance preferred, because the aim was to get large plants in a short space of 

 time. So soon as these buds had shot forth about six inches they were stopped, and 

 in due course of time, two, three, or four laterals were produced from each. These 

 were drawn out to sticks stuck in the ground a good distance apart, that the shoots 

 might receive the full advantage of the sun and air. The surface of the soil was once 

 or twice loosened with a Vernon hoe. The Summer Roses, as was expected, did not 

 flower; but the Autumnals showed their first flower-buds about June. Eyes con- 

 tinued to push forth both from the laterals and the base of the first shoots during the 

 whole of summer. Now was the time to form the plants. Wherever an eye was seen 

 to break in a position where thought superfluous or ill-placed, it was at once rubbed 

 out, and the eyes bursting late in summer were invariably served the same. By 

 October I had the satisfaction of seeing plants with from six to ten well-balanced 

 shoots, vigorous, yet well matured. The leaves were larger, and retained on the plants 



