Disbudding. 



109 



shaded buds. On the Coupe d'Hebe (Fig. 28) every other bud is removed. By the 

 accompanying illustrations it will be seen that we remove seven or eight buds from a 

 branch of the Persian Yellow of equal length with one of the Coupe d'Hebe, from 

 which we remove two or three buds only. But disbudding is not the work of spring 

 only ; it must be attended to all through the growing season. The plants should be 

 looked through at least twice before the time of flowering, and again soon after the 

 flowering is over. The remains of the flowers should be cut off, unless seed is sought 

 and only so many eyes be allowed to develop in the second or summer's growth as 

 the state of the tree and the considerations before mentioned may render advisable. 



In rubbing out the buds it is sometimes difficult to decide which to remove. The 

 tendency of a bud should be almost invariably outwards ; and in buds, as in shoots, 



Fig. 28. DISBUDDING. Coupe d'Hebe. 



Fig. 29. DISBUDDING. Persian Yellow. 



the greater distance, in moderation, they are from each other the better. Should two 

 buds threaten when developed to cross or crowd each other, the one taking the least 

 favourable course of growth should be removed. 



I have often heard amateurs, when admiring some of the large specimens in the 

 Nurseries here, express astonishment at their prodigious size, which they attribute to 

 great age and good soil. But it must be told that the system of pruning has as much 

 to do in this matter as the age of the trees or the soil in which they grow. The 

 oldest of the large trees here cannot number more than forty years, though there are 

 others much older not half the size. Often have I seen old Rose trees full of shoots, 

 nearly all proceeding from the base of the head, owing principally to injudicious 

 pruning. When the knife is applied, whether in autumn or in spring, the greater 

 part of these must be removed, for there is not room enough for the whole to be 



