EXHIBITING 



191 



however strong and healthy they look. Before rubbing 

 off the others the selected young shoots should be 

 carefully examined to see that they have not been 

 injured by frost or grub, as the hopes of the plant will 

 now depend on them. 



Even among dwarf cutbacks, stakes should be 

 supplied to support all Roses with flexible stems such 

 as Earl of Dufferin and Marie Baumann among H.P.s 

 and most of the Teas. A sufficient number of bamboos 

 or other stakes of various heights should be stored in 

 handy corners ready for this purpose. 



As a general rule, all buds but the centre or crown 

 bud should be removed as soon as possible, and when 

 the wood buds push, further down the stem, these also 

 should be rubbed out. A quill toothpick or knife point 

 is sometimes used for the removal of the tiny buds as 

 soon as they can be distinguished, but finger and thumb 

 will soon get expert at the Avork and do it mechanically. 



Be careful about delegating this operation to inex- 

 perienced hands. I remember a trade exhibitor telling 

 me that he once thought he would employ some women 

 at it. " I want you," said he to them, suiting the 

 action to the word by taking the cluster at the end of 

 a shoot and rapidly removing all but the centre bud, 

 " to take off all these buds like this." They set to 

 work with a will, and when he came back some time 

 afterwards to see how they were getting on, not a single 

 bud of any description remained on the rows which 

 they had devastated. 



The rule has its exceptions : there are certain Roses 

 which are apt to come coarse, or too full, so as to be too 

 long in opening if they are over freely supplied with sap. 

 The treatment in these cases must be modified, the 

 small buds being gradually destroyed, or one or more 



