166 JOURNAL OF THE EOYAE HOBTICT7LTCRAL SOCIETY. 



should not our rose-trees grow as fine and large as they will ? 

 The answer is to be found in the manner of the natural growth 

 of the rose. By watching an unpruned rose-tree, either wild or 

 cultivated, it will be found that the first strong shoot flowers 

 well the following season, but gets weaker at the extremity in 

 a year or two, and another strong shoot starts considerably lower 

 down, or even from the very base of the plant, and this soon 

 absorbs the majority of the sip. anl will eventually starve the 

 original shoot, and be itself thus starved in succession by another. 

 A rose in a natural state has thus every year some branches 

 which are becoming weakened by the fresh young shoots growing 

 out below them. And this is one of the first reasons why pruning 

 is necessary. A rose is not a tree to grow onwards and upwards, 

 and as standards seem to be. going out of fashion, and so many 

 varieties are dwarf in their growth, it seems better to speak of 

 rose-plants than of rose-trees. 



Objects in view. 

 The objects of pruning are : — To maintain the life and 

 strength of the plants, to mould and preserve their shape, and 

 to give more vigour, colour, and substance to the flowers. Owing 

 to the natural habit of growth before mentioned, a considerable 

 amount of wood must be taken away annually to prevent the 

 shoots robbing each other, and, when nature is thus once inter- 

 fered with, art must step in to make and to keep a plant of well- 

 balanced shape. And further, even for ordinary garden purposes, 

 a considerable amount of strength and sap must be reserved for 

 each bloom, or, in the case of the dark H.Ps., they will not show 

 their true colours at all, 



TTiiy the Art has declined. 

 The principal art of pruning — that of forming and maintain- 

 ing a shapely plant of well-placed shoots — has very much declined 

 of late years, owing to (1) the decadence of really strong-growing 

 varieties, (2) the waning popularity of standards, where a well- 

 balanced head is more noticeable and necessary than in a dwarf 

 or bush plant, and (3) the fact that most enthusiastic rosarians 

 are also exhibitors, and therefore care more for fine' perfect 

 blooms than for well- shaped plants. When I first learnt to prune, 

 upwards of thirty years ago, H.Ps. were something new, and 



