8 



In pruning roses for ordinary garden decoration, the following rules 

 may be laid down : — 



1. All dead and unripe shoots must be cut clean away at the base 

 whence they started. 



2. In the shortening of shoots always cut to an eye pointing away 

 from the centre of the plant. 



3. Summer-flowering roses (those which bloom only once in the 

 season) generally need thinning and training rather than hard cutting. 

 The last year's shoots should be left fairly long, two-year-old shoots 

 ratlier shorter, and three-year-old shoots shorter still. 



4. After thinning out is completed, the remaining shoots should be 

 cut back to 5-7 eyes. For exhibition the pruning should be the same, 

 only more severe. Thin out more wood and cut back to 2-3 eyes. It 

 may be necessary, probably about the end of May, as soon as the flower- 

 buds can be seen, to remove with the fingers some of the surplus shoots, 

 especially those which are " blind " [i.e. without flowering buds at the 

 termination of the shoots), leaving only those which are most promising 

 and best placed. 



I have never had an opportunity of seeing any " cut backs " grown 

 for exhibition, for roses for show are largely cut from maidens 

 (i.e. plants which have been budded the previous summer). As a 

 rule, larger specimen blooms are obtained from these, but of course 

 in the case of a good many varieties " cut backs " produce better- 

 formed flowers, and amateur exhibitors cannot discard their plants 

 every year to make room for maidens. 



Climbing or Rambling Roses.— Th^se. should have some of the older 

 shoots cut away entirely each year, directly after the plants have 

 flowered in early autumn, and the young shoots lightly tied in to take 

 their place. Any shortening of the remaining shoots should be done 

 in March of the following year. There are exceptions to this rule ; 

 some Multifioras which are crosses with the Teas and Noisettes flower 

 best on the short laterals from the old wood, and consequently a good 

 deal of this must be retained. Examples are found in ' Tea Rambler ' 

 and ' Aglaia.' 



In the case of WichuraiaHas, as the trusses of bloom spring from 

 almost any part of the weU-ripened stems of the previous year's 

 growth,, the pruning must be arranged to save as much as possible of 

 the young strong growths and to cut out all the old wood which has 

 not produced strong continuing laterals. 



Roses which are weak growers require hard pruning, strong growing 

 varieties require moderate pruning, and vigorous growers require light 



rntl^°f ' 'I^f.^'^i ^ *'"^'"'y *° "'°^^ °"^ ^"other should be 

 ? ^i '? ^^ P^^''* ""^y "°* ^^'^"^e overcrowded. The centre 



should be kept open, so as to admit air and light 



and^HvhriH /''^'^7-rf :^^^f ^nd Standard Hybrid Perpetuals 

 and Hybrid Teas should be pruned during the month of March, 



