96 



THE BOOK OF THE ROSE 



CHAP. 



found but do not break or stop them. No pruning 

 whatever will be necessary during the following winter, 

 but the plant must always be highly fed. The Rose 

 will probably bloom freely along the rods in the next 

 spring, and as soon as the blooms are over, the upright 

 rods (if any) must be cut quite back to the horizontal 

 part from which all shoots must be clean removed. 



We have now left, probably about April, a plant, 

 shaped like a T, a stem with two simple horizontal arms, 

 and this will be the whole of the permanent part of the 

 Rose. The horizontal arms will soon begin to break in 

 several places, and shoots must be trained under the 

 wires about fourteen inches apart, all other buds and new 

 shoots being rubbed off. The chosen shoots may appear 

 weak at first, but they will gain in strength, and the 

 autumn growth, if the plant be well nourished, will be 

 very rapid. Probably all the shoots will not reach the 

 top of the house this year, but they should be allowed 

 to grow as far as they will, and to ramble anywhere 

 where there is room when they have reached the top, 

 till growth ceases for the winter. As soon as the buds 

 seem inclined to break in the spring, the time being of 

 course dependent on the amount of heat supplied, all the 

 ties should be unfastened and the long trailing shoots most 

 carefully let down for a few days to give the lower buds 

 an equal chance of breaking with the upper ones. They 

 should then be retied in their former positions, and the 

 ends reaching further than the top of the house, for 

 which no room can be found, may be cut off. 



Almost every bud should now produce a flower — a 

 splendid sight which may last a month. The blooms 

 will be greatly superior to those grown out of doors in 

 general perfection of shape, but the petals will be 

 thinner in many cases, and the flowers less lasting. 



