210 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[January 17. 
I 
I 
! 
I 
roses do very well, and are attended to properly, the 
month of February is a good time to prune all but 
the very dwarfest sorts. These, and all the weekly 
growing ones, ought certainly to be pruned close, ■ 
and as early after the fall of the leaf as possible ; for 
they are not in a condition to afford to lose one 
drop of the sap that is collected after the fall of the 
leaf. 
Now, wlierr we ai’e asked about the best time to 
prune roses, we hear of their not doing well, the soil 
is too thin, or too poor, or they are overshadowed with 
trees, or large roots from these trees compete with 
them in the beds or border, or, in short, they are not 
thrifty; and, if not so, they ought not to lose any 
sap by late pruning; but as soon as the office of the 
leaves is over for one season, the buds, which are to 
furnish the next season’s supply of wood and flowers, 
ought immediately to be put into the best condition 
for the end in view, by cutting off those buds above 
them into which the still circulating sap would first 
flow; and thus, whatever the accumulation of sap 
may be in such roses between the fall of the leaf and 
the bursting of the spring buds, is effectually re¬ 
served without any waste ; and the same rule holds 
good with every deciduous plant grown in our cli¬ 
mate, whether it be a tree or a bush. 
What I have said above about spring pruning 
was only for the sake of argument, and partly in 
deference to many respectable men who believe that 
the spring, and even a certain week or month of it, 
is really the proper time to perform this work, be¬ 
cause they had found, in their own experience, that 
their roses did very well under that particular mode 
of pruning. But I hold it, or rather the law which 
governs the increase and growth of plants com¬ 
mands, that in our climate, at least, every plant 
which casts its leaves, if it requires pruning at all, 
ought to be pruned as soon afterwards as possible. 
It is true that, in the autumn, some of the buds on 
peach and apricot trees are not readily distinguished 
as wood buds or flower buds, and, therefore, not 
then in a condition to be finally pruned; but that 
does not affect the law involved in the subject of 
pruning. 
But I have another view of this question, which 
is quite original, and has never been broached be¬ 
fore; but, of course, it is possible that I may be 
altogether wrong. Many years back, I had some 
experiments, bearing on this very point, in hand for 
three seasons running. They were intended, how¬ 
ever, for the purpose of crossing, and I was then 
quite satisfied, in my own mind, that cross seedlings, 
obtained from the same plants, but severely pruned, 
and otherwise operated upon at very different sea¬ 
sons of the year, were as different in strength and 
peculiarities of constitution, as if they had been ori¬ 
ginated from very dissimilar parents. To make my 
meaning more clear, say, of two plants of the com¬ 
mon Moss rose, exactly of the same age and strength, 
and growing side by side; one of them is pruned 
down to three or four eyes early in October; the 
other is allowed to go on till it makes six inches of 
young wood at the end of next spring, and is then 
pruned. Bust the flowers of both with the same ! 
pollen; but the seedlings will come very different 
from the two plants; and, although I never crossed 
a moss rose, I venture to say that seedlings raised in | 
this way would show a very decided difference in the 
doubleness of their flowers. 
We all acknowledge that nature has done nothing 1 
in vain; and, therefore, that there must be a reason i 
for everything connected with plants. What, there- ) 
fore, can be the reason why tire sap of deciduous 
plants does not rest entirely while there are no leaves 
to turn it into use ? If it were not essential to some 
particular end, we may rest assured it would not be 
in motion during the winter. Again, we all say,^ 
what is true enough, that a good crop of roses, of 
gooseberries, or of any other flower or fruit, of trees 
or perennial plants, is to be ascribed rather to the 
growth of the plants in the previous season than to 
that of the current summer. May it not, therefore, 
be part of the economy of vegetable life that the 
store of nutriment laid up in the plant during the 
growing season should be, to a certain degree, diluted 
with undigested sap during the time the tree is at 
rest, and thus forming a thorough mixture from 
which the next growth is made? Whereas, if the 
sap was entirely at rest during the whole winter, 
and until the buds were ready to open, the rising 
sap in the spring must necessarily be more raw, so^ 
to speak, and, therefore, less fit for the production of 
the finest flowers or fruit, particularly the former. 
Now, although I have put all this hypothetically, I 
really believe it to be perfectly correct; and as firmly 
believe that to leave young shoots unpruned until 
the spring, after the mixture is properly formed in 
the upper parts, and then late in the spring to cut 
those parts off, and compel the bottom eye to burst, 
by a sudden flow of the raw juices or sap from the 
roots, is perfectly wrong, and that no attempts to 
check the growth of a plant should be made by any 
mode of pruning the branches, but rather by operat¬ 
ing on the soil and roots. 
J. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Conservatory Climbers. —There is a gracefulness 
about climbers which no other plants possess, when 
they are assisted in their growth just so much, and 
no more, as is necessary to show off to advantage 
their natural beauties. A starched-up, prim, close- 
trained appearance, does away with their peculiar 
interest and attraction; unless, indeed, in the case of 
those smaller types of' the group, in which the flowers 
are studded so closely and so beautifully, that our at¬ 
tention becomes so absorbed by these, that we forget, 
for the tune, their mode of growth. The manner in 
which the convolvolus, honeysuckle, clematis, rose, 
&c., cover, slant from, and festoon, our hedges and 
woodlands, in spring and summer, might often sug¬ 
gest to us many appropriate ideas as to fitness, though 
none for servile, heedless imitation, as to the methods 
of cidtivating and training. 
In the case of those cultivated in pots, it is common 
to train them to wire trellises of various shapes and 
patterns, which are so far objectionable, that they 
always give the plants a stilted appearance, until 
they become so bushy and strong, as to hang from, 
and completely conceal, the trellis which supports the 
main shoots. For many plants, a stout stake, with 
well ripened shoots of various lengths tied to it, and 
then, the young shoots allowed to hang, with their 
flowers in almost a natural manner, would answer 
the purpose as well. For many purposes, young larch 
or spruce fir-trees, cut down in spring, when the sap 
is in motion, peeled, and every twig retained, make 
as good, and more natural, and more cheap, sup¬ 
porters, for all such climbers, twisters, and creepers, 
than wire trellising ; while you can easily make your 
plants flat-sided or round, flat broad bonnet-headed, 
or taperingly conical, at your pleasure. 
