THE WORTHY USE OF ROSES 329 



names may be counted by hundreds. Fortunately 

 for those interested in their cultivation, a good many 

 of these names refer to plants with very unimportant 

 distinctions (many of them, indeed, are minor forms 

 of our native Dog Rose), and the best of the wild 

 species are mostly grown under the names applied 

 to them in the following notes. 



Their cultivation is simple. They are like the 

 Hybrid Perpetuals in their love for a rich loamy 

 soil — one inclining to a clayey rather than to a 

 sandy nature. Loving abundant sunlight, they are 

 not happy in shady spots. The commonest mistake 

 in their cultivation is in pruning. The notion that 

 they have to be cut back like Hybrid Perpetuals and 

 such-like Roses has often resulted in the loss of a 

 season's flowers, besides destroying for the time the 

 peculiar beauty of habit that many species possess. 

 The shoots, often long, sucker-like growths that push 

 from the base in summer, supply the flowers of the 

 following year, and until they have flowered should 

 not be touched with a knife. Whatever pruning 

 is necessary — and it is, as a rule, a mere matter of 

 thinning out of old worn-out stems — is to give the 

 young growths more air and freedom. No shorten- 

 ing back is needed. It may always be remembered 

 that some of the most beautiful specimens of Wild 

 Roses in existence, especially those of rambling 

 growth, have never been pruned at all. The chief 

 thing is always to retain the free, unfettered grace 

 natural to the plants. Pruning will help to do this, 

 but it must be pruning of the proper kind. 



