60 PRUNING. 



pose. Wherever a sucker comes up through the ground, use a fork and 

 take up as much root as you think suck a plant ought to have ; the 

 operation must be performed quickly, and with a very sharp knife, 

 for the root must not dry under the operation, and they must be 

 planted directly. The graft need not be put in wedge fashion ; any 

 other way is as good, if the join be smooth, well fitted, and tied firmly. 

 But we do not recommend grafting of any kind as the best means of 

 propagation. Nothing is so simple as budding, and scarcely anything 

 so efficacious. The propagators of roses by root grafting are very apt 

 to grow the suckers in pots for a considerable time, so that they get 

 completely established after being broken away from the parent root, 

 before they are submitted to the operation of grafting, and this 

 becomes then almost a matter of certainty ; whereas we have known 

 the roots of suckers bleed so much, that they have lost the roct, 

 and have been indebted to the graft striking root for not losing it 

 altogether. 



PRUNING. 



THE principal objects to be attained by pruning roses are first, to 

 compensate, by reducing the part to be nourished, for the loss of the 

 root that has to nourish it, which loss, greater or lesser, is always 

 suffered by removal. The proper way to do this pruning depends 

 much on the state of the plant when you have planted it. If it be 

 very bushy, cut away all the weather branches, leave not more 



,n three or four of the best of the shoots, and shorten even those 

 n to a few eyes. If you wish the plant to continue dwarf and 



shy, you may cut down to the last eye or two of the new wood, 

 but leave no thin half-grown shoots on at any rate. If the plant is a 

 matured bush, with numerous branches, and pretty strong generally, 

 shorten the new wood down to two eyes, which will show what more 

 you need do. It may be found that you have then a great many 

 more branches left on than you require; cut one half of them close 

 off, and that half must be the thinnest ; but it may be that the plant 

 will be improved by cutting sjme of the main branches clear away, 



very 



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 i 



