10 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



exalted into tte dignity of a science, and the old 

 canon — cut deep or hard to find health or hloom — 

 is absolutely reversed by the modern dictum — the 

 less pruning the better. Prevention better than cure 

 has also been applied to the pruning of Roses with 

 the happiest results ; growth is now directed into 

 more profitable channels than the production of fagots 

 for the oven, or the making of charred refuse or 

 burnt earth for the roots of Roses. It is moulded 

 into blooming or furnishing shoots from the first. All 

 this, however, adds very much to the difficulties of 

 pruning ; from a single action at a set time, it has 

 spread out into several distinct interferences at 

 different periods or conditions of growth. From 

 being confined to the tops only, 

 it has descended to the roots 

 as well ; at one time resorted 

 to chiefly as a handy means 

 of limiting the area of plants, 

 it has now become a mighty 

 force in the hands of cultiva- 

 tors in moulding their forms, 

 and controlling the quantity 

 and quality of their produce. 



Roughly divided, the j)rnn- 

 ing of Roses resolves itself 

 into disbudding, j)inching, 

 summer, autumn, winter, 

 spring, and root pruning. 



ir 11 Disbudding. — This is 



|j U one of the most important 



and newest arts in modern 

 Rose-cultvire. The term here 

 does not apply to the thin- 

 ning of blossom-buds, which 

 is common enough, but to the 

 thinning out of the wood-buds 

 of Roses, during the autumn, 

 early spring, or summer. This is often practised on 

 vines and such-like plants, and there is no objection 

 to its api^lication to Roses, excepting the time that 

 it takes. It is obvious, however, that if every alter- 

 nate bud is removed from the shoot, it will be 

 so much the less hard to prune at any future time. 

 (Fig. 30.) More than this, if these buds are removed 

 in the autumn during the process of bud- filling, those 

 left will be the better filled in consequence. The leaves 

 should on no account be removed with the buds, as 

 if left intact, and finding no bud to nurse up at 

 their base, they will speedily begin to pass on their 

 supplies to the next bud nearest to them. These 

 disbuddings, while the buds are yet in embryo, need 

 clever manipulation and a sharp knife. Practice, 

 however, renders the process comparatively easy. 

 A mere touch with a hot wire is the quickest mode of 



Fig. 30.— a. 

 shoot, with all its 

 buds intact ; h, 

 same shoot, with 

 part of its buds 

 removed. 



killing the buds ; and a small movable furnace, with 

 half a dozen such heaters, would enable one exj^ert 

 to virtually disbud enormous quantities of Roses in a 

 day without injm^y to the bark, leaf, or wood left. 



Spring Disbudding is, of course, far more 

 easy. The majority of Roses would vastly benefit by 

 the carrying of this very much further than it is 

 now ; the majority of Rose-plants would be finer far, 

 in foliage as w^ell as bloom, were haK of their buds 

 rubbed off in the spring. All the weakest and the 

 worst-placed should be removed first, and then 

 should they still seem too closely placed, a portion 

 also of those which remain. 



Summer Disbudding. — By the introduction 

 of Hybrid Perpetual, Tea, and other Roses, the 

 growth of Roses does not by any means run parallel 

 with the seasons. On the contrary, they grow on 

 and on, if not for ever, at least as if there were no 

 wanters nor other arresting contingencies ahead of 

 them ; and, of course, with each fresh bursting of 

 buds, and new development of growth, the necessity 

 for disbudding may arise. By this simple process, 

 we husband force, and perfect our produce, whether 

 of wood or bloom. By the practice of disbudding 

 we may place growth just where we want it most, 

 and also expose it more thoroughly to light and air. 

 The consumption of plant-food is husbanded, and 

 all of it is turned to more useful jDuriJOse. No more 

 waste of vital power nor plant-food, are vir- 

 tually the highly satisfactory results of disbudding. 

 Huge shoots are no longer grown for knife-food, but 

 to give symmetry or size' to the Rose-bushes or trees, 

 and to crown them with fragrance and beauty. 



Pinching or Stopping the Young Shoots. 



— So soon as the one bud on the worked briar, or 

 the several buds on the grafted plant, or the vigo- 

 rous buds left on the disbudded ones break into 

 shootlets, and have made from four to six leaves, 

 stop them by pinching their top off between the finger 

 and thumb. This pinching may be designated the 

 second easy step in pruning, and if skilfully per- 

 formed just when and where wanted, little more or 

 other pruning may be needed. (Fig. 31.) 



It may seem strange to the uninitiated that a 

 chapter on pruning should open with paragraphs 

 tending to throw doubt on its necessity or useful- 

 ness. But only thus can its theory and practice be 

 understood. Prevention in regard to pruning is 

 infinitely preferable to cure. No one with any sense 

 prunes for the mere love of ciitting off Rose or other 

 shoots. Hence, if we can gain our object through 

 gentler methods, these are surely preferable to those 

 surgical amputations that savour of crueltj' and 

 barbarism, and look marvellously like blunders. 



