THE CULTIVATION AND MANAGEMENT OF ROSE 3. 
259 
seen practised, that a large portion of Standard- 
roses are grown altogether upon a wrong 
principle. A Standard-tree, to be handsome, 
should he as wide in the head as its entire" 
height; and although upon the present system 
of pruning them, they enlarge a little every 
year, they are not kept in a proper form, nor 
properly pruned. When your Standards are 
planted, you need do nothing to them until 
April; then cut all small shoots off close, that 
is to say, clear them right away; cut down the 
strong ones to two, three, or at most four 
eyes, care being taken that the top eye is 
jjointing outwards ; the object of this is to 
obtain strong branches growing outwards, to 
make a wide head. As the shoots grow, notice 
the best and strongest that are growing in a 
position to widen the head, and leave them to 
make all the growth they can; allow any shoot 
that is gi*owing up strong in the centre to grow 
also ; and further, a most important point, rub 
off, or cut off with a very sharp knife, all 
weakly growing shoots, all that grow inwards 
and cross the head, and wherever two cross 
each other, remove the weakest. The branches 
that grow outwards will be good enough and 
strong enough in one season's growth to leave 
any length you please towards making a 
proper sized head; but as five or six of these 
branches will not make a full head, the next 
season they may be shortened to half their 
growth, taking care that the end bud must be 
an under one, for all the tendency of the Rose 
is to grow upwards, and it is only when the 
natural growth is outwards or downwards that 
the weight prevails to keep it in a horizontal 
or drooping position. This second year, and 
indeed every subsequent year, every branch 
that does not assist to form a handnome head 
without crowding, must be taken away, and 
the younger it is when taken, the more good 
its removal does, because the other branches 
get the better. With regard to any one or 
two, or even three upright branches, though 
one strong one is worth three weakly ones, 
they may be shortened down so that two or 
three good eyes may be fairly above the other 
branches, and that when they grow outwards 
the next season, they may help to fill up the 
head of the tree above; when the eyes begin to 
shoot, rub out all that come where they are not 
required, and leave those of which you are yet 
doubtful as well as those you know will be 
wanted, because it is at this period you have 
such control by driving the whole strength of 
the tree into the branches that are wanted. In 
this way you proceed until the head of the 
tree is the proper form and proportion, instead 
of, as we now see them everywhere, a small, 
pimping, ungraceful head to a tall stem or 
trunk. When once it has arrived at this per- 
fection, which with very little care and atten- 
tion it will, you may cut back every years' 
wood to two eyes; cut out every weak shoot 
altogether, if you have not rubbed it off in the 
bud ; cut out all that are in the way of free 
growth for the rest, and when any portion is 
confused by reason of the number of spurs or 
shortened branches left on, clear away a bit 
by cutting them off. Always remember that 
Standard-roses for appearance should not be 
too closely pruned; but for showing, when the 
individual blooms are shown, a multiplicity of 
flowers is against size. We can hardly recorn- 
First Year's Growth of Bud. 
■*<. 
-rfife 
Second Year's Growth of Bud. 
Third Year's Growth of Bud. 
mend too strongly, the necessity of what we 
shah call spring pruning, which is, in fact, 
nipping the mischief in the bud, watching the 
development of the newly coming branches, 
and removing all but the number there is 
good room for; and as this has not been 
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