96 THE BOOK OF THE ROSE chap. 



principal reasons why pruning is necessary. A rose 

 is not a tree to grow onwards and upwards, but a 

 plant which in the natural course every year or two 

 forms fresh channels for the majority of the sap, 

 and thus causes the branches and twigs above the 

 new shoots to diminish in vitality. In seems better, 

 therefore, to speak of Eose-plants than of Eose- 

 trees, especially since standards are now less used, 

 and so many new varieties are dwarf in their 

 growth. 



The objects of pruning are : — To maintain the life 

 and strength equally throughout the plants, to mould 

 and preserve their shape, and to give more vigour, 

 colour, and substance to the flowers. Owing to the 

 natural habit of growth before mentioned, a consider- 

 able amount of wood must be taken away annually 

 to prevent the shoots robbing each other, and when 

 nature is interfered with art must go a little further 

 to make and to keep a plant of well-balanced shape. 

 And also, even for ordinary garden purposes, a 

 considerable amount of strength and sap must be 

 reserved for each bloom, or, in the case of the dark 

 H.P.s for instance, they will not show their true 

 colours at all. 



The principal art of pruning — that of forming and 

 maintaining a shapely plant of well-placed shoots — 

 has almost died out in modern out-of-door Rose 

 culture. This is owing to the neglect now shown 

 to the Hybrid Chinas and Hybrid Bourbons, really 

 strong-growing varieties but only blooming once : 

 to the decreased popularity of standards where a 

 well-balanced head is more noticeable and necessary 

 than in a dwarf or bush plant : and to the fact that 

 most enthusiastic Eosarians care more for perfect 



