16 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



matter where found. The largest and roundest huds 

 are mostly the best, if these are thoroughly matured ; 

 and such huds may he found at times at various 

 portions of the growing shoots. For example, they 

 wiU mostly he found at the hase of such short and 

 Bturdy-gro'wing Roses as Baroness Rothschild, ahout 

 the middle of such vigorous growers as Duke of Edin- 

 burgh, and towards the summit of such sorts as 

 Coupe d'Hebe. Hence the first should be short or 

 close-pruned, the second to a moderate length, and 

 the third long-pruned. And so the principle of 

 gradation of length, as well as time, must run along 

 and through the entire art of Rose-pruning. 



The Summer Pruning of Eoses. — The 

 term is here confined to Tea Roses and the pruning 

 of the spring or summer shoots of the Hybrid 

 Perpetuals so soon as their first blooms have faded. 

 It is hardly safe to prune Tea Roses in the open air 

 until the end of April or the first week in May. 

 These, as they vary so greatly in vigour, must also 

 be pruned differently, such strong growers as 

 Gloire de Dijon, Climbiug Devouiensis, Marshal 

 Niel, and Belle Lyonnaise being pruned much longer 

 than Niphetos, President, and Marie van Houtte. 

 But, unless carefully protected, the severity of the 

 winter mostly takes a good deal of the pruning of 

 Tea Roses ofi: our hands. It not seldom degenerates 

 into a mere mechanical removal of dead or dying 

 wood, or the cutting off the frost-bitten, slain plants 

 to the level of the ground. But where all is well, 

 and the Roses have passed safely through the winter 

 months, no hard and fast lines can be laid down for 

 the pruning of Tea Roses ; for in these we may 

 have not only two, but many sucoessional growths to 

 take into account, not a few of the Teas being virtually 

 perpetual bloomers, because they never cease growing. 

 Hardly has one set of Roses opened fully when the 

 buds on the flowering shoots are showing a succes- 

 sion of peeping buds, as though the in-comers were 

 anxious to see the old flowers before they disappear. 

 Hence the careful thinning out of the weakest and 

 equal distribution of the stronger shoots is not 

 seldom the only pruning possible, or indeed desirable, 

 for Teas. Their recuperative force, however, is so 

 great that, whether pruned lightly or heavily by 

 art, or yet more ruthlessly by the heavy and ruth- 

 less forces of nature in her bleakest, hardest moods, 

 the Teas, if alive, are sure to recover and spring 

 forth into new life and beauty with the advent of 

 genial weather. 



The Summ.er Pruning of Spring and 

 Summer Shoots. — Some years ago the practice 

 was more common than it is now to go over the 

 Hybrid Perpetual, and other twice-blooming Roses, 



directly the flowers faded, and cut back the flower- 

 ing shoot more or less closely to its base. This 

 forced the second shoots out nearer home than if they 

 had sprung from the head of the shoot. By cutting 

 to the most likely bud, and disbudding most of the 

 others, a stronger second shoot was also secured. 

 Fewer shoots and finer being thus obtained, the 

 autumn bloom was, on the whole, finer in conse- 

 quence. The tops of the shoots were also used for 

 scions or cuttings, as well as the weaker ones that 

 were thinned out ; the latter being cut off with a heel 

 jformed the best cuttings. This summer pruning not 

 only favoured a better autunmal growth of blossom, 

 but simplified the practice of winter or spring 

 pruning by settling beforehand, as a rule, the dual 

 claims of the two classes of growth already referred 

 to. As a rule, the base or some part of the second 

 growth was generally cut back, too, either in the 

 autumn or spring. But as the rush of sap is always 

 to the top, this summer pruning made some of the 

 second growths later than they would have been. 

 Hence, partly, and also on account of the consider- 

 able labour it involved at a busy time, it is not now 

 very common. 



Another Kind of Summer Pruning. — 



This is mostly applicable to Banksian, Marshal 

 Niel, and a few other Roses. It consists in the close 

 cutting off the flowering shoots so soon as the flowers 

 fade. The plants almost immediately break into 

 fresh growth, and this growth is left intact untU 

 it flowers next year, when the process of pruning, 

 growing, and flowering is repeated ad ' mjinitum. 

 One constantly hears complaints of the Banksian 

 Roses — of which the smaU white, so deliciously frag- 

 rant, and the small clustered yellow, are by far 

 the best — not flowering, or blooming but scantily. 

 How can they when their flowering shoots are 

 spurred off wholesale, in the spring ? Planted on 

 the south or west side of a house or outbuilding, they 

 wiU cUmb up fifteen or twenty feet, and extend to 

 quite as great a breadth, and literally smother the 

 building every May with their drooping wreaths or 

 pendants of bloom, many of them extending from 

 one to three yards in length. There is no richer or 

 more pleasing sight among all the Roses, rare and 

 sweet, than these charming Daisy Roses without a 

 thorn treated and pruned thus. It is most important 

 that they should be pruned early, not a. day being 

 lost between the fading of the bloom and their 

 severe pruning, to allow as much time as possible 

 for their growth to be made and matured before the 

 winter. This thorough ripening of the wood is 

 essential to enable such semi-tender Roses to endure 

 the severities of winter, as well as to insure a proiiigal 

 profusion of bloom. 



