112 



CASSELL'S POPITLAR GAKDENING. 



(Fig. 36), the Rose-tree will "be fuxnished with nine 

 branches the following year. These will form 

 strong, well-ripened shoots hefore the end of the 

 growing season. Any lateral or small shoots should 

 be removed during the summer and autumn, and the 

 shoots disbudded back to within six inches or a foot 

 of their base. This tends to a fuller development 

 and a more thorough ripening of the buds, on which 

 the future Hfe and form of the tree depend. 



Pruning the Third Year. — This differs little 

 from the second, exceptiag in the greater number of 

 shoots to cut back. Occasionally, too, some of the 

 shoots from intercrossing, or 

 taking a wrong course, may 

 be cut out bodily, or re- 

 moved during the summer 

 to give more light and air, 

 or to develop or make room 

 for better-placed shoots. To 

 jnake this matter more sim- 

 ple, however, the entire 

 number of shoots are shown 

 in Fig. 37. 



Growth and Pruning 

 the Fourth Year. — Fig. 

 38 shows the Rose-tree as it 

 would look before pruning 

 in the fourth year from the 

 start. It will now have 

 over twenty shoots, sufficient 

 to form a good standard 

 Rose, and base enough to 

 form one of the very largest 

 that need or can be grown. 



The cross-lines show the same tree cut back in 

 the autumn or spring. There is no need to pursue 

 the process fm-ther. At the same rate of increase, 

 the same tree during its next season's growth would 

 have the required number of shoots, and, in fact, 

 have grown into such a finished standard Rose- 

 tree (Fig. 39) as will fitly close these descriptions 

 and illustrations. 



The Pyramidal Rose on a Single Stem. 



— On the whole, the same method is the best for 

 forming pyramidal Roses. True, they may be 

 formed by four, seven, nine, or any number of 

 stems ; but in such cases they are hardly likely to 

 be so stable or symmetrical as on the one-stem 

 principle. In forming pyramids thus, they also may 

 become almost self-supporting as they get old, the 

 main or leading stems growing into something like 

 the thickness and stability of a tree. PjTamids thus 

 formed also bloom more freely, and if they are 



Fig. 39.— Standard Eose, completed 



worked plants the evils and inconveniences of suckers 

 are almost immediately detected and removed ; where- 

 as in many-stemmed worked pyramidal Roses, the 

 stock not seldom gets so much mixed up with the 

 Rose on its top, that in the gardens of amateurs it 

 sometimes first suppresses and then succeeds it. A 

 curious case of the marvellous deterioration of a 

 Charles Lefebvre Rose, was speedily explained by the 

 fact that the De la Grifferaie stock had completely 

 overgrown and smothered it. Of course this could 

 not have happened to a skilled rosarian ; but it is not 

 for such, but those that know little about Roses, that 

 such cases are cited as warnings. So considerable, 

 however, is the risk of this 

 unobserved development of 

 stock in pyramidal Roses, 

 that own-root plants are to 

 be preferred for this form. 

 And failing these, the con- 

 fining of the Roses to one 

 stem, and starting the base a 

 foot, eighteen inches, or even 

 two feet from the ground, 

 renders the intrusion of 

 shoots from the stocks im- 

 possible, and also adds to the 

 beauty, and more fully dis- 

 plays the true character, of 

 pyramidal Roses (Fig. 44). 



First Pruning of 

 Pyramidal Roses. — In 



the formation of these, the 

 leading shoot should always 

 have the pre-eminence from 

 the first (Fig. 40). That 

 shoot, though beheaded every year, should be cut 

 back to the best and most prominent bud. In order 

 to insiu-e the presence of a fine bud at this point, 

 it is good practice to disbud the upper end of the 

 shoot as already described, or even to shorten the 

 leader considerably, about the middle of September. 

 This throws the strength of the plant into the buds 

 left, and insures that the upper ones especially, that 

 is those nearest to the beheading-line, shall break 

 \'igorously next year. But apart from that, the 

 natural tendency of the sap to flow with most 

 vigom' in a vertical course, insui'es that the top bud 

 on the leading shoot shall not only break with 

 the greatest vigour, but maintain its supremacy for 

 strength throughout the simamer. In the practice 

 of moulding Roses into good pyramids, the difficulty 

 seldom or never is about the sti^ength of the leader, 

 but the maintenance of an equahty of strength among 

 the semi-horizontal branches. Where this is the 

 case, these side- branches may often be strengthened 



