ON PRUNING AND TRAINING PLANTS TO FORM STANDARDS. 
19 
its possession of a gracefully drooping or flowing head, wliicli the slightest wind 
may agitate, and which will he additionally interesting when the species is a 
blooming one. 
Of the hardy shrubs that may be turned into standards, we have, at different 
times, pointed out Rhododendrons, Portugal Laurels, Ivy, and Honeysuckles, 
besides those with which all are familiar. To these may be added the Laurestinas, 
the double-blossomed Furze, Ribes sanguineum^ and probably Kalmia latifolia^ 
with a variety of American plants. For standard Roses, we have likewise 
suggested the abandonment of so much pruning after the first three years, allowing 
the head to expand more, and the branches to incline downwards. This would 
take off all that stiffness which so much needs relieving. We have further 
recommended that the climbing sorts of Roses, or the less rambling of them, be 
inserted on standard Stocks, that a more graceful character may be at once attained. 
The range of the operation as respects half-hardy and really tender plants, is 
far wider. It will include such large quantities, that enumeration would be almost 
endless. Standard Verbenas, Petunias, Pelargoniums, shrubby Calceolarias, Helio- 
tropes, &c., would make very pretty objects in a conservatory or drawing-room ; 
and there are few greenhouse or stove shrubs that might not advantageously be so 
treated. In raising them thus above the soil, air and light would act more efficiently 
upon it, and its condition as regards moisture might be better ascertained. 
Finally, the widely known susceptibilities of Mignonette to assume a shrubby 
nature when trained as a standard, renders it more than probable that other annuals 
may be managed in a like way. Objects of interest and curiosity are here, there- 
fore, placed within the easy reach of any one who will try the experiment. 
The sole danger that w^e would wish avoided, is that of following out the 
practice too extensively or injudiciously. Our mode of treating the subject, 
demanded that v^^e should exclude other views than those which bear upon it : but 
at a future period, we shall press the importance of a process precisely the reverse 
of this viz., that of rendering tall plants dwarf and bushy. At present, we may 
content ourselves with saying that only a few specimens of each species should be 
trained as standards, and that these should be dwarf standards, and not have the 
long, naked, slender stems which mostly disfigure plants so prepared. 
We trust that this article will help to fasten attention on the point, and excite 
cultivators to try the capabilities of many graceful plants as standards. Climbers 
and half-climbers, particularly, where they can at all be brought to submit to such 
treatment, would give singularly elegant results. We have dealt chiefly with 
hints, which we leave the practical grower to apply. 
