168 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March S, 1?87. 
they appear. This is disbudding, of which more anon. But to 
return to the question, “ Why do we prune?” We do so to get 
fine blooms, to improve the appearance of the plant, and to remove 
old wood so as to make room for the new. 
Pruning for the growth of exhibition blooms is not a very 
difficult business. Pruning to improve the appearance of the plant 
is—for beginners—extremely so. I said pruning for exhibition was 
easy ; let me qualify that. It is easy insomuch that we do not 
care anything about the appearance of the plant so long as we get 
a flower that shall be first-class. Where we have to form a plant, 
and have to consider the future shape, which depends so much on 
what we cut away or what we leave on, and where at the same time 
we wish for some blooms the first season, if not many, to reward us 
for our toil, the difficulties are very much multiplied. However, 
whether the subject be difficult or not, it should be thoroughly 
mastered ; it will be so in time by every person who really intends 
to become a Rose grower, and who will to that end make use of the 
brain he has been endowed with. It must be thoroughly mastered, 
because without it no result, or next to none, can be obtained. We 
may dig, drain, manure, lime, plant, and attend in every other way 
to our Rose trees to the best of our ability, but without some 
knowledge of pruning we shall reap no adequate return, our toil 
will be useless, our labour in vain. 
Mr. Wm. Paul speaks of pruning as the most important part of 
Rose culture, and I do not think I can quote a more practical 
authority on the subject. I advise throughout these pages that 
amateurs should grow dwarf Roses, and if this advice be followed 
pruning will be an easy matter, but many readers will prefer to 
have standards. These must make up their minds, either to a little 
study, or, if they like it better, to the partial spoiling of their 
plants for one or two seasons—through over or under pruning— 
or until they gain experience enough to enable them to do it 
properly. 
Before we begin pruning in earnest we must have the necessary 
tools for the purpose, so we will discuss this part of the question 
first. When I began Rose growing I tried to use a knife, but my 
soil was so light that I nearly dragged the plants out of the ground 
in my efforts to cut off the branches. I had to try scissors, and 
becoming expert in the use of them, I have used them ever since. 
At the same time a good sharp knife makes the cleanest and closest 
cut, scissors being apt to bruise the wood and spoil the bud you 
wish to prune to. French secateurs, of which there are now many 
patterns, are very useful to cut thick branches or to remove old dead 
stumps, but after all a good deal depends on the taste of the indi¬ 
vidual. My pruning, being principally the cutting away of shoots 
just on the ground line, or a bit below it, very soon dulls the edges 
of scissors from the amount of grit and soil which they come in 
contact with ; but many of these branches could not he cut so close 
with a knife except after much trouble in drawing away the soil. 
Again, in pruning the shoots of standards with a knife, one hand is 
required to hold the shoot steady, while the other wields the 
weapon. With the scissors this is not necessary. The beginner 
had better try both knife and scissors, and stick to that which 
answers his purpose best. I should advise one thing, and that is, 
that he should buy good tools, not cheap rubbish, made to sell—the 
buyer. In going over a large collection of Roses, the beginner will 
discover, whether he use knife or scissors, that either will make his 
hands sufficiently sore to cause him to remember his exertions for a 
fwe days afterwards. Thorns, too, play havoc with the back of the 
hand. These are most objectionable when they catch in the skin, 
break off, and leave just the very point deep in the flesh of the 
unfortunate operator. These little points have a nasty way of 
entering further and further into the flesh, the sharp end being 
inwards. After a long day’s pruning the extracting of these little 
thorns from his hands affords a cheap and innocent, though some¬ 
what painful, amusement for the beginner. “No Rose without a 
thorn,” though not perfectly true nowadays, is quite near enough 
the truth to be decidedly unpleasant. A pair of leather gloves will, 
no doubt, prevent all the aforesaid unpleasantness, but they are 
horribly uncomfortable, and I, personally, prefer to do without 
them. 
Now, just as there are four cardinal points in the compass 
by which mariners steer, so there should be certain similar cardinal 
points or rules for the guidance and direction of the beginner in 
pruning his Roses. I will try to indicate a few :— 
1, The larger and finer the blooms required, the more severe 
must be the system of pruning. 2, Vigorous growers, if pruned 
tjo severely, will make strong shoots, but without bloom. 3, The 
weaker or smaller the habit of growth of a plant the closer it 
should be pruned. 4, Varieties which bloom freely require closer 
pruning than those which give naturally few blooms. 5, The riper 
the shoots the less excitable, therefore in these cases earlier pruning 
may be practised, 6, Those varieties which naturally produce 
short shoots give the best blooms from buds near the bases of these 
shoots, therefore these sorts require to be pruned hard. 7, The 
wood which is loft to produce blooms must be ripe; green sappy 
shoots are no good. 
Now just let us dissect these points a little :— 
No. 1, This seems simple enough—if we want a few fine flowers 
we are to remove in pruning nearly the whole of the plant, cutting 
it away nearly to the ground. But then we have No. 2 to contend 
with. If we cut in the strong-growing varieties too much they will 
send up a lot of beautiful vigorous shoots covered with very fine 
leaves, but no flowers. In the case of strong growers we remove 
the wood in another way, by cutting out a certain number of the 
shoots, cutting them clean away, but leaving the others longer. 
No. 3, The weak and small-growing kinds should be cut in very 
close. In their case, treated so, they bloom profusely, and do not 
give us any trouble by sending up flowerless shoots. 
No. 4, Many varieties give a flower on the tip of every shoot, 
or nearly so, while others will not give half as many. Others, again, 
form a cluster of buds on each single stem. It is obvious that each 
of these sections require different treatment in pruning. 
No. 5, If the plants have been well ripened in the autumn 
preceding, the buds after pruning will not begin to grow so 
quickly; in other words, the plant will not be so easily excited, 
supposing a few warm days should follow the pruning, as if the 
shoots are soft and unripe. Well-ripened wood is darker in colour 
than unripe, and the interior of the branch, when cut, is found to 
be hard wood, with a very small centre of pith. Ripe wood, when 
pressed between the finger and thumb, is felt to be firm and bard, 
while unripe wood is just the reverse, soft and yielding. 
No. 7, Most Roses—except Teas, which seem to grow always, 
except in winter—make two well-defined growths in the season, in 
spring and in summer. In the south and west of England, probably, 
in ordinary seasons all the wood would be so ripe that it would be 
immaterial which of these growths were left on the plants to 
produce bloom the season following. In any case, no matter in 
what part of the country the plants are growing, the spring growth 
must, of necessity, being grown first, and having the early summer 
sun and heat on it, be riper than the summer growth, which often 
extends far into autumn. In my own case—and I recommend all 
others who reside in similar cold neighbourhoods, where we have 
such short summers that the later growths are rarely ripe enough 
to trust to—to do as I do, and always, if possible, cut back to the 
spring growths. 
There is one other rule to remember in pruning, and that is, to 
prune always to an outside bud — that is, to cut close to a bud which, 
when it grows and becomes a branch, will point outwards and away 
from the centre of the plant, the object being to keep the branches 
as far apart as possible, so that the leaves and branches shall have 
