83 



Introductory Remarks. 



THE following general directions and explanations 

 should be carefully read before proceeding to carry 

 out the instructions afterwards given, or the reader 

 may fail to grasp the meaning they are intended to 

 convey. 



The late Rev. A. Foster-Melliar in his " Book of 

 the Rose " pointed out that the necessity for pruning 

 arises in a great measure from the natural growth of 

 the Rose. " By watching," he said, " an unpruned 

 Rose-tree, either wild or cultivated, it will be found 

 that the first strong shoot flowers well the second 

 season, but gets weaker at the extremity in a year or 

 two, and another strong shoot starts considerably lower 

 down, or even from the very base of the plant, and 

 thus soon absorbs the majority of the sap, and will 

 eventually starve the original shoot and be itself thus 

 starved in succession by another. A Rose in a natural 

 state has thus every year some branches which are 

 becoming weakened by the fresh young shoots growing 

 out below them. This is one of the 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 major portion of the sap, and thus causes the 

 branches and twigs above the new shoots to diminish 

 in vitality." 



