THE ROUTINE OF WORK 23 



face with a hoe and a sharp steel rake is abso- 

 lutely necessary for all the rose beds. The 

 soil should never be permitted to become 

 baked. After a hard rain, when the surface 

 has been beaten down, it should be loosened 

 as soon as it is dry enough to work, and should 

 be kept loosened. This is one of the most 

 important points in the cultivation of the rose. 



SUCKERS 



During this cultivation, and at all con- 

 venient times, keep a sharp lookout for 

 suckers, which are growths shooting up from 

 the roots from below the graft. Where the 

 rose is budded on the brier, as is usually the 

 case, the difference of foliage is so marked 

 as to attract attention at once, the brier having 

 very light green and small leaves as compared 

 to the rose leaf, and also a gross reddish-white 

 stem when young. The brier leaf has seven 

 leaflets instead of only five as the garden roses 

 have. The suckers should be carefully broken 

 off at their point of junction with the root, if 

 this can be done without disturbing the plant. 

 Otherwise they should be cut off as low in the 

 ground as the shears will reach. If this detail 



