VI PRUNING 107 



pruning will cause buds to push at once from the 

 old wood : and among the weaker varieties, whose 

 blooms are best on maiden plants, such buds should 

 be encouraged; but in the case of the stronger 

 growers, the blooms will probably be best from last 

 year's wood. Some sorts have particularly robust 

 and ample foliage ; in this case the shoots should be 

 left longer in the pruning, and the top buds, or those 

 that are as far apart as possible, alone retained. Thus 

 Madame Gabriel Luizet is strong enough to support 

 from four to six, or even perhaps more first-class 

 blooms upon each plant ; but as the foliage is large 

 and full, the shoots should be left at the pruning four 

 or five inches long, and the top outlooking bud alone 

 retained on each, all others being removed as fast as 

 they appear. Varieties apt to come coarse and too 

 full should also be left a little longer in the pruning, 

 and have more shoots retained ; but it is most 

 important that the special idiosyncrasies of the 

 varieties, as shown in Chap. XII, should be carefully 

 studied, or the results may be disastrous. Thus 

 some, as La France and Marie Eady, will show the 

 perfect blooms only on comparatively weak shoots : 

 some, like Madame Eugene Verdier, will canker and 

 die if pruned too hard : and several others, like J. B. 

 Clark and Duke of Edinburgh, will make too much 

 wood and have but poor blooms after all unless the 

 shoots are left a fair length. 



For ordinary and decorative purposes. Tea Eoses 

 in the open, if well fed and spared by the frost, 

 might be pruned but little ; still they should not be 

 allowed to become leggy and scraggy, and a fair 

 amount of pruning on the same lines as recom- 

 mended for the H.P.s will tend to keep the plants 



