THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
191 
December 25. 
j be allowed its full length until the flowering was over, 
I and then, say early in July, I would thin out the shoots, 
not prune them, as I would a gooseberry bush in winter; 
in most cases, two-thirds of the shoots would be removed 
altogether, the very strongest, the weak ones, and the 
two-year-olds ; the rest would be of medium growth, and j 
would be left their full length. After this cutting, the 
second growth, or Midsummer shoots, as we call them, 
would be sure to be too close to flower well next year. 
To remedy this, the whole would be looked over late in 
September, and all the crowded parts relieved by thin¬ 
ning, that is, the shoots to be removed would be cut as 
close to the stems which bore them as the knife could 
reach, that is our meaning whenever we advise thinning- 
out shoots of trees or bushes. This system, with some 
slight modifications, has been in use for some years 
among gardeners, but few of them have been bold 
enough to say so in print, because it is so much at 
variance with old-established rules. On the other hand, 
if we change these bushes into high standards we must 
prune a little after the thinning, at whatever time we 
choose to thin; not, however, because pruning is neces¬ 
sary for the health of the trees, or for increasing the 
bloom, but merely “for the look of the thing,” to keep 
the head within reasonable bounds, and be well balanced 
all round. 
For the same reason we prune them still closer when 
we have them against pillars, so that pillar roses, to keep 
a long time in good trim, must be thinned and pruned 
every year all the way up to the top, and no suckers, if 
possible, should ever be allowed to rise from the bottom 
of a pillar rose, for this reason, the youngest and 
healthiest shoots—as suckers are sure to be—are the 
readiest channels for the rising sap in the spring, and 
if the sap is allowed to run in that direction, what is to 
become of the shoots and branches which compose the 
pillar? Nothing, in short, but starvation, and the 
attacks of troublesome flies, red spider, and what not. 
It is true that a few suckers may become useful to screen 
bad management, by filling up bare places which the 
pruner should have foreseen and provided for; but to 
see suckers allowed for shifts of this kind under the eye 
of a good gardener, is as disgraceful to him as to see 
himself going about with a long beard. 
Pillar roses, whatever be their height, look best when 
planted in straight rows, and all in one row ought to be 
as much as possible of the same height; they look re¬ 
markably well along both sides of a walk, either in dug 
borders or on grass, circular beds being cut out of the 
grass tor the roots, the circles to be a yard wide, and the 
bottom of the rose allowed to spread out so as to hide 
all the bare soil, and to appear to a stranger as if 
it was growing directly out of the grass. When the 
pillar rose is first planted, the hole or bed for it on the 
grass should not exceed half-a-yard in diameter, for two 
reasons; the first of which is the temptatiou offered for 
planting some flowering plant for an edging to the rose, 
if the space was the full size at first, and although a 
judicious edging of the kind might look very pretty, it 
might prove a sad drawback to the experiment; and 
the second reason is the well-known aversion of all good 
gardeners to making a full provision for any line bush 
or tree at the first planting, if it be on grass. We have 
found out, by long experience, that so long as we do not 
cramp the roots of such favourites, the holes for them 
cannot be too small at the first planting, and that it is 
best to increase the size of the hole year after year, or 
every two or three years, as the case may require, 
so that each time an immediate stimulus be given to 
| the roots by the application of fresh compost as the 
j roots increase. Besides, what an advantage it is for 
any of us who are not overburdened with money, that we 
I can run the expense of providing for a row of pillar 
j roses over so many years, instead of having it to do all at 
once, which is, perhaps, the greatest consideration of all. 
Purse gardening is all very well for those who can afford 
it, but it never carries the same credit with it as good 
management with small means, never fails to do. In 
some situations—as, for instance, at the end of a straight 
walk, or at both ends—the two opposite roses should be 
of the same kind; and when they reached the top of 
the pillars an arch might be carried over from pillar to 
pillar, and the roses trained over the arch. For these 
arches we ought to plant some of the evergreen climbing 
roses, and they would cover over the arch as soon as the 
others reached the top of the pillars. This arching of 
pillar roses is the very opposite of the festooning system, 
and would be a very good break between the pillar roses I 
along one walk, and festoons on each side of the next 
walk turning from it in another direction. 
There is nothing theoretical or hypothetical in these 
views; I have seen the whole of them in full perfection 
this very week in the gardens at Claremont, one of the 
finest seats in England, now occupied by the family of 
the late King of the French. 
Now, after all this, suppose an amateur just beginning 
to take up the rose fancy, who has made up his mind to 
have some of all the sections in the manner treated of 
in the last few numbers of The Cottage Gardener, 
what shall we recommend to him for real pillar roses, 
seeing that almost all the sections furnish plants that 
may be so treated ? But first of all, let us fix on some 
standard height for the pillars themselves. It must be 
quite obvious that if we exceed a given height, pillar 
roses will not make suitable accompaniments to a walk, 
however wide it may be, although as single objects, or 
in threes or fives, tall pillars would no doubt make a 
very striking effect. My own opinion is, that seven feet 
would be the proper height for a row of pillar roses, 
when they were planted in lines or rows along a walk; 
seven feet to be the right distance from the walk itself, 
and about ten feet from pillar to pillar in the row; and 
if there were two rows, one on each side of the walk, 
the pillars should stand opposite each other as true as 
possible ; but in matters like this, which depend entirely 
on individual taste, I have no right or wish to push my 
own fancy;—the only part I would be absolute about, if 
L had the power, is that, whatever the height of the 
pillar may be, it should stand the length of its own 
height from the walk. Pillars were invented for roses 
nearly twenty years ago, and seven feet was then the 
average height recommended for the Hybrid Chinas, 
which soon followed on the heels of George the Fourth. 
The introduction of Hybrid Bourbons did not alter the 
height of the pillars ; and if there was a patent law on 
the subject, such only would be entitled to pillars, and 
Chenedole being the finest of all the Hybrid Chinas, 
the first two opposite pillars would be covered with it, 
followed by old Brennus, Fulgens, Triomphe d'Angeres, 
and a host of other rivals, including two generals now 
prisoners at Ham, while Charles Duval and Coupe 
dHebe would probably dispute precedence among the 
Hybrid Bourbons; and for the second place of honour 
we have Las Casas, Paul Perras, and President Mole, 
striving against a new comer, Paul Ricaut. 
D. Beaton. 
GREENHOUSE AND WINDOW 
GARDENING. 
Cape Heaths. — Propagation by cuttings. “ A paper 
on such a subject, in the short, dark, murky days oi 
December. Well, what next?” Aye, what next, gentle 
reader, but something more about these pretty heaths, 
unless the “pressure from without” should send us 
cantering in another direction. And yet, where I dis¬ 
posed to be at all argumentative, which I am not, I might 
