BUDDING 



drop of its blood, leaving the bud to perish for lack of nutrition. 

 Speaking generally, but subject to variation according to district, 

 the end of March may be looked upon as a very convenient and 

 suitable time. 



The cutting back of the standards is fraught with much less 

 danger than the dwarfs, and there are more reasons than one for 

 this. In the first place there can never be the same rush of sap, 

 seeing that it has to traverse up a long, dry stem. More, the main 

 plant is not beheaded, only the young wood 

 being headed back as in ordinary pruning. It 

 is not cut back so hard as to leave the " bud " 

 the only remaining eye, but always 2 or 3 inches 

 of the brier are left beyond the bud, from 

 which young growths are encouraged to func- 

 tion until the bud itself becomes active, when 

 the brier shoots are rubbed off. By way of 

 contrast, this illustrates how very drastic is the 

 treatment which the dwarf budded stock is called 

 upon to meet. 



A very natural propensity on the part of the 

 stock in favour of its self, as distinct from the 

 bud which has been inserted into its system, can 

 readily be understood, and this is so marked that 

 the rose grower has to constitute himself the 

 guardian of his own handiwork. It appears 

 determined to grow for itself of itself, and, to 

 starve out the bud, it sends out numerous 

 suckers to which it gives preferential treatment. 

 The grower is equally determined that it shall 

 not grow for itself, but devote all its energies to the stranger, 

 hence he ruthlessly and remorselessly removes these suckers as 

 fast as they appear, and if he is caught napping he will find 

 the stock has beaten him. Thus his duty for some months is 

 to keep down the suckers until the stranger growth has become 

 so strong and so completely the plant that it can defy any suckers 

 which may be put up. 



When the bud has grown 2 or 3 inches, it must be supported, 

 otherwise a very moderate breeze is capable of blowing it out. 



BUD 



FIG. 10 



Budded Stocks 

 Headed Back 



