Gardening for Amateurs 



247 



comes round. No ; judicious pruning and 

 thinning should take place all the season 

 through. Every time we cut a Rose blossom 

 we are helping on the work of pruning. 

 Mildew also must be watched for and as far 

 as possible prevented from gaining a foothold. 

 Once neglect this enemy and it spreads so 

 fast and so far that it is improbable that you 

 will ever get it under that season unless you 

 be willing to sacrifice all the blossom in the 

 garden for a while and to syringe thoroughly 

 with a good fungicide, as when all the bushes 

 and trees are full of blossom it is difficult to 

 spray with a fungicide without doing great 

 harm. The only alternative is, if the blossoms 

 are not too numerous and too close together, 

 to tie each one up in a piece of butter paper, 

 or oil paper, or any other material that will 

 not let the spray through, and will not itself 

 collapse when slightly wetted. If this can 

 be done, of course all the foliage and the stems 

 can be thoroughly treated, but many partly 

 opened buds will probably be spoilt. 



Pruning Climbing Roses. In late July 

 down south many of the climbing Roses 

 may have completed their summer flowering, 

 and so soon as it is certain that this has 

 happened the wood that has just flowered, in 

 the case of Multifloras and Wichuraianas, 

 should be cut out unless thsre be a shortage 

 of new growths. This relieves the plant and 

 saves it from wasting its strength on wood 

 that would be of little or no further use. If 

 the plants are of full size, healthy and strong, 

 there should be no lack of new vigorous long 

 growths, so that the old stems that have borne 

 their blossoms may safely be got rid of in 

 such cases. They should be cut right out 

 from the base. This is not a rule, however, 

 without exceptions, but at the moment other 

 exceptions beyond those mentioned may be 

 ignored. 



In the north there are probably no climb- 

 ing Rosas that finish their flowering in July 

 except, possibly, Ayrshires and some of the 

 species or wild types used as climbers, but 



A remarkable bush of the old Rose Captain Christy (Hybrid Tea), blush pink. 



