2/8 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES 



session, you shall not see the Rose in its integrity. 

 The injury was done before the aphis came. 



But there is something better than cure — there is 

 p7'evention. The aphis finds no food when the Rose- 

 tree is in perfect health ; it will not taste the sap 

 which is pure and untainted ; it is a leech which 

 sucks bad blood only. If situation, soil, and super- 

 vision be such as I have suggested, nothing but 

 weather of unusual severity will bring aphis or 

 harm to the Rose. Once upon a time a Rosarian 

 asked me * what I did with the green-fly ? ' I told 

 him truthfully that they never troubled me ; and I 

 suppose I spoke too conceitedly ; for soon after- 

 wards they attacked me in force for the first time 

 since I understood the art of Rose-growing. But 

 in that year (1873) the bitterness of May was extra- 

 ordinary, as the farmer, the fruitist, and the florist 

 know to their cost ; and it was evident, in the dull 

 look of the leaf, that the trees were frost-bitten, and 

 that the usual consequences must come. 



Early in June, the Roses intended for exhibition 

 should be disbudded ; that is, all buds should be 

 removed except one or two of the largest and most 

 central. I believe that the late Mr. Keynes, of 

 Salisbury, was the first, at the suggestion of Mr. Gill, 

 his foreman, to try this experiment, and the superior 

 size of his Roses, soon made the practice general. 



