ON THE PRUNING OF ROSES. 



439 



Roses are too vigorous, it is enough simply to decrease the number of 

 shoots, but taking great care to preserve enough of them to replace worn- 

 out branches, in order to make a well-balanced plant for whatever place 

 it is destined. The twigs of these reserve shoots should be pruned to the 

 length of 10 to 20 centimetres. This system of substituting vigorous 

 branches for exhausted ones, as well as leaving little shoots, should be 

 used for spreading Roses in general. 



Dr. Barnier says as follows : " It is necessary to prune every year, and 

 almost without caution ; the more you prune a Rose the longer it will 

 last, the more flowers it will give, the more the time of its flowering can 

 be varied. The pruning is very simple. There are two methods, 

 according to whether you want many flowers, or fewer but larger ones 

 and more symmetrically placed on the bush. 



" The master to whom we were apprenticed, Monsieur Liabaud, some 

 time ago, asked the following question : Is there any real theory as 

 regards the pruning of Roses ? One might almost doubt it on seeing 

 different gardeners operating, each in his own particular way. Some 

 advocate training them along the ground like certain soft-wooded plants 

 and forming a carpet, as in the case of Petunias, Verbenas, &c. ; others 

 cut them every spring level with the ground, like the annual stems of 

 sundry perennial plants ; others remove, every year, the last year's shoots, 

 cutting back the new growth more or less. If one considers their manner 

 of growth, this last plan may perhaps be the most rational ; for, as it 

 grows stronger, the Rose every year makes stronger shoots, which develop 

 from below those of the preceding year. It is for this reason that Briers 

 which grow in the woods take three or four years to make stocks strong 

 enough to be budded as standards. 



" To sum up, I think that it is always necessary to renew a Rose bush 

 by cutting out the old branches of three or four years' growth which are 

 used up, are not getting any bigger, and will di 3 in a short time. Long 

 or short pruning depends on the strength of the plant ; some of the weak 

 branches, when they do not reach beyond the cut ends of the strong ones, 

 should not be shortened, because the terminal eye which receives its 

 nourishment from the whole circumference of the branch gets much more 

 sap than the lateral eyes, and very often gives finer flowers. The necessity 

 of removing the suckers from the wild stock on which Roses are budded 

 should never be forgotten, as they almost always grow more strongly than 

 the budded plant." 



Joseph Schwartz, a pupil of J. B. Guillot, who enjoyed a great reputa- 

 tion as a Rose-grower, was also an advocate for pruning Roses. 



The month of March is, without exception, the time to prune all 

 varieties of Perpetual Roses (by Perpetual Roses are meant those which 

 blossom more or less all through the summer and autumn) : that is to say, 

 garden varieties placed in the following classes : Bengals, Teas, Noisettes, 

 Hybrid Perpetuals, Bourbons, &c. One can begin pruning the hard- 

 wooded varieties about the middle of February, especially if the winter is 

 not a severe one ; for example, Hybrid Perpetuals, Portlands, Perpetual 

 Mosses, &c. But with varieties derived from Indian species, such as Teas, 

 Bengals, Bourbons, &c, pruning should never take place in our part of the 

 world before the month of March. 



