212 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ March 17,1887 
ROSE-GROWING FOR BEGINNERS. 
(Continued from page 187.) 
PRUNING- CLIMBING ROrE 3. 
Much cannot be said on this point, as climbing Roses do not 
require any pruning, properly speaking. To do justice to these 
they should be taken down from the walls or trellis to which they 
are attached. All the wood more than two years old, or at most 
three years, should then be cut out, or as much of it as is possible, 
and the remaining shoots replaced in position. If this is not done 
the tree becomes a tangle of new and old branches, growing so 
thickly in all directions that the sun and air are kept away, the 
wood cannot ripen, and poor flowers and puny growths are the 
results. The whole thus becomes an eyesore, and arrived at this 
stage, the only plan is to cut it down to the root nearly, and begin 
again, either with the old plant or a new one. 
PRUNING TO PRODUCE A MASS OF FLOWERS. 
Some of my readers may wish to have a lot of flowers in 
preference to individual blooms of greater size and vigour. This 
is a very easy matter, and is only a question of leaving more buds 
on the plant to grow and produce blooms. Ripe shoots may be laid 
down horizontally—in the case of standards bent and tied down— 
until the buds have fairly broken, when they may be tied up again, 
or allowed to resume their natural habit. If the ground be suitable 
the shoots of dwarfs may be pegged down permanently, and during 
the season fresh shoots will grow up from the base for the next 
year’s blooming, the shoots that have bloomed being cut clean away 
at the following pruning season. Care should be taken not to bend 
Fig. 88.— a, Shoot badly cat. !>, Ditto, -well cut. c, Showing results of pruning as at a. 
the new shoots down too early in the season, or the frost may injure 
the young growing buds, most of which would remain dormant— 
those at the extreme ends of the shoots only growing—if the shoots 
were allowed to remain upright, until all danger of frost was past. 
In growing budded or worked Roses on this principle it will be 
necessary to look out for, and remove, suckers, which will be con¬ 
tinually growing up from the stocks. Where an upright bush is 
preferred, the shoots in pruning may be left as long as individual 
taste may desire, but if left long, and allowed to remain upright, 
only the upper buds will break, and a very unsightly plant will be 
the result. 
HOW THE CUTS SHOULD BE MADE. 
A few words as to this. I wish to warn the reader that my 
illustrations are not a guide in this matter, quite the contrary ; in 
fact I have purposely drawn them just as they should not be, so 
that I may be able, by showing him how he should not do it, the 
more clearly explain to the reader how it should be done. Figure 38 
at a shows a shoot badly pruned ; for this reason, there being no bud 
at the end of the shoot, the sap will not flow as far, it will stop 
short at the bud, and the result will be that all the wood beyond 
the bud will shortly perish and leave a snag or piece of dead wood, 
which is very objectionable, and may introduce decay into the 
healthy part of the branch. In the same figure, at c, I have 
endeavoured to show the snag which would be produced the 
following season. At b I give an example of how a branch should 
be pruned. If cut down close to the bud the bark will heal over 
and the wood will remain alive and sound. 
DISBUDDING. 
This term is applied to two distinct operations—one the removal 
of wood buds, which, if allowed to remain, would in time develope 
into shoots or branches—and the other, to the pinching off of the 
superfluous flowers while they are yet in a very young state. 
In the case of the wood buds, which afterwards become branches, 
I said a little way back that more buds might be left on than might 
be afterwards required. This might arise from want of judgment; 
or the beginner might, after pruning, when he saw the buds breaking 
and beginning to grow on the plant, think that he had left too 
many; or, which often happens, buds which were not seen at the 
time of pruning may start out in inconvenient places, as, for 
instance, pointing inwards, or towards the centre of the plant; or, 
as again often happens, two or more buds may break out at the 
same point. In any of these cases, as soon as possible after the 
discovery that any of these buds are to be done away with, the 
beginner should bring his thumb to bear on the subject, and break 
off, or rub away, the superfluous buds. If there are many to come 
away, and these have attained any size, or are in full leaf, they 
should be taken off at intervals, as it is a rule, or should be, that 
when the sap is flowing, or when plants are in a growing state, 
which is the same thing, that violent changes should be avoided. 
The sudden removal of any quantify of shoots or buds, which have 
been up to then absorbing a certain quantity of sap, must disturb 
and augment the supply to those remaining. The reason for early 
removal of these buds is obvious. If they are not to be allowed to 
come to maturity, whit is the use of permitting the plant to waste 
its energies growing them at all ? Off with them, and the sooner 
the better. 
Now as to the pinching off of superfluous flowers. Many 
varieties produce quite a cluster of flower buds at the ends of the 
shoots. If these are all allowed to grow, one blooms first, and is 
followed at intervals by the others ; but naturally the blooms, even 
the first, are not very large. If we want a very large and fine 
flower we must concentrate the whole of the energies of the plant 
in one bloom in each cluster—the others must be pinched off. Now 
if these buds are to be removed, they should be so treated as soon 
as they are large enough to be discernible by the naked eye. As 
in the case of wood buds just mentioned, it is very improvident, 
and a great waste of the energies of the plant, to allow it to grow, 
and perhaps half mature a bloom which is doomed to destruction 
from the first. If there be three or four shoots cn a plant, and it 
is desired that the flowers should bloom at intervals, a good plan is 
to remove the central bud from one or two clusters, leaving only 
one of the smaller or secondary buds to take its place. This will, 
as a matter of course, take a longer time to arrive at the blooming 
stage. 
Disbudding is applied to standards with good results, particularly 
to those varieties which really make good standards; and these 
varieties, let me say, are not near so numerous as many people 
imagine. I shall probably give my idea of what a standard Rose 
tree should be elsewhere, so I will content myself here with saying 
that I allude now to those varieties which make shoots as long as, 
or longer than, the ribs of an ordinary sized umbrella, in one season. 
These would be treated, of course, to produce a mass of flowers; 
some of the branches cut clean out at the base, and the others left 
long. The individual flowers would be much improved, and the 
next season’s branches would be much more vigorous, if some of 
the buds were rubbed away from each shoot; for example, all those 
that pointed inwardly. To get them all to break, the branches 
should be bent or tied down. If this were carried out, all the buds 
would break pretty equally and grow with equal vigour, and a fine 
half-globe-like mass of flowers and foliage would be the result. 
In the middle of June 1876 I travelled by road from Chester 
into North Wales, and I shall never forget the fine effect produced 
by the standards growing in all the cottage gardens about, or within 
ten or twelve miles of Chester. They looked exactly as if the 
shoots had been trained to the framework of an umbrella, and on 
every side drooped long branches, the whole forming one mass of 
flowers. General Jacqueminot seemed to be the greatest favourite; 
he was to be seen in every garden. But I was particularly struck 
in one place by a beautiful tree, a Noisette apparently, covered with 
the most lovely pale yellow flowers—it is a long time ago now, but 
I think from what I remember it must have been either Madame 
Caroline Kuster or else Celine Forestier, both excellent for growing 
in this form; bnt, alas! for us in this inhospitable part of the 
kingdom, requiring a greenhouse to grow them. AimiSe Vibert, 
however, for those who desire a cloud of white flowers, is quite 
hardy, and answers admirably under this treatment. 
In this neighbourhood pillar Roses are scarce, but where they do 
well, disbudding would be a great assistance in getting them into 
shape. The object being to form a pillar of bloom, free from 
breaks or gaps, much may be done by removing buds from where 
there are plenty; and, on the other hand, encouraging those best 
situated to fill bare places. As I said before, any required bud may 
be got to break if the branch be laid down horizontally for a short 
time.—D. Gii.mour, jun. 
(To be continued.) 
CYCLAMENS AND THEIR CULTURE. 
It is, I believe, a generally admitted fact that these plants are not, 
as a rule, grown to a very high state- of excellence in private gardens. 
In many cases this is, no doubt, because there is not the convenience te> 
devote houses or pits especially to their cultivation, and in others be- 
