I 
•h 11. 190b. 
Phe Gardening World 
MOTTO FOR THE WEEK: 
“Then let the learned gardener mark with care the kinds of stocks, and what those kinds will bear.”— Virgil. 
^EKLY prizes 
FOR 
SHORT ARTICLES. 
lb Proprietors of I he Gardening World 
. l^jve ;i Kish prize of SEVEN Shillings and 
ivKNClv FOR TUli BEST PARAGRAPH, OR SHORT 
lk, sent by readers during the week, and 
Shillings and Sixpence as a second 
j Tie Editor’s judgment must be con- 
led final, and he will be at liberty to use 
i\of the contributions sent in. The para- 
on, or article, must not exceed one 
ibiN in length, but the value, rather than 
ejength, of the. article will be considered in 
a ng the award. Competitors may send in 
l s of news or comments on news ; hints of 
t tical interest to gardeners or growers of 
i s, fruits, or flowers; successful methods of 
r agating plants tusually considered difficult; 
• ontribttions on any subject coming 
nix the sphere of gardening proper. 
rs should be addressed to The Editor, 
aed “Competition,” and posted not later 
i Friday night to ensure insertion in the 
s of next. week. 
’he following Coloured Plates 
ive appeared in recent num- 
> rs:— 
ptember 12— SIX NEW DAFFODILS, 
-tober 3 — LILIUM AURATUM PLA- 
’HYLLUM SHIRLEY VAR. 
iverabei 14. —ROSE MME. N. LEVA 
5SEUR. 
nuary 2— HYBRID TEA-SCENTED 
>E IRENE. 
inuary 30. — TUBEROUS BEGONIA 
1UNTESS OF WARWICK, 
ffiruary 27— A FINE STRAIN OF 
i DXINIAS. 
pril 2. - WISTARIA MULTIJUGA 
! SSELLIANA. 
ay 7— CACTUS DAHLIA DAINTY, 
une4— CACTUS DAHLIA SPITFIRE 
% 16— ROSE LADY BATTERSEA. 
?p°Dn L ~ geum HELDREICHI 
ERBUM. 
Tober 15— ROSE HUGH DICKSON. 
ick numbers may be obtained fiom the 
: tshera, price 2£d. post free. 
'his week we present a Half-tone 
Plate ot 
ERIOSTEMON MYOPOROIDES. 
ixt week we shall give a Half-toi 
Plate of 
SPARMANNIA AFRICANA. 
ie first prize last week in tl 
Competition was awarded 1 
! U, for his article on “An Artist 
' T t Fe * ce >” p ‘ 186 1 a “d the secon 
J /’ for his article o 
rowing Seakale,” p. 180. 
Views and Reviews. 
Pruning Roses.* 
In working for the benefit of its members 
the National Rose Society continues to work 
up some useful information on some or 
other feature of the cultivation of Roses. 
During the last two decades garden Roses 
have been immensely multiplied by hybridi¬ 
sation, cross breeding, and by seed-sowing 
generally. A considerable number of people 
in the British Isles are now engaged in the 
interesting art of raising new varieties to 
supersede those already in cultivation, or 
to produce Roses for certain purposes, there¬ 
by filling up gaps amongst the requirements 
of the Rose garden. 
Owing to this activity, not only in this 
country but abroad, there have arisen im¬ 
mense numbers of Roses, of which very 
little is known or understood by the garden¬ 
ing community at the preseat day. So 
varied is the habit of the different forms 
that great experience is required, and a 
wide one, to properly prune each variety 
of Rose according to its necessities or the re¬ 
quirements of the cultivator. We notice 
that no less than twenty-two sections are 
now indicated amongst cultivated Roses, 
and this alone is a pretty good indication 
that a large number of the original wild 
types have been employed at one time or 
other in working up the cultivated Rose. 
It is not surprising to find that many 
varieties of Roses which find their way into 
gardens are badly or wrongly pruned, es¬ 
pecially amongst amateurs whose experience 
is as yet but limited. Even professional 
gardeners have their difficulties with certain 
kinds, which may be primed according to a 
general plan, and proved to be wrong from 
the fact that these new comers may not 
flower satisfactorily. In other cases, the 
fact of their not flowering is put down to 
some other reason, such as the neighbour¬ 
hood of towns, smoky atmosphere, or even 
to the inclemency of our winter. On the 
other hand, when other people succeed in 
flowering these Roses under practically 
identical conditions as to climate and 
proximity to towns, some other reason 
must be sought to explain the want of suc¬ 
cess. In many cases where Roses fail to 
The National Hose Society’s Handbook on Prunin 
Roses. Compiled by a committee of the Societv. Ilhis 
trated by Miss I. M. Charters. (Copyright 1905.' Edwarc 
Erndlnd ) 0 "‘ Secretary ’ ' Vational Society, Berkhamsted 
flower satisfactorily instances have come 
under our notice of wrong methods of prun¬ 
ing. This hook will therefore prove an 
immense boon to growers and intending 
growers of Roses who take the trouble to 
make themselves acquainted with the simple 
instructions here given. The book has 
been compiled by a committee of the society 
and is practically, therefore, the result of 
expert knowledge in this particular branch 
of gardening. The members of the society 
are entitled to a copy of the work, but those 
who are not members may obtain it through 
a member of the National Rose Society for 
2s. 6d., post free. 
The book is a small one, running to 
83 pages, but it is worked upon a plan 
which avoids a great deal of unnecessary 
description, and practically the book con¬ 
stitutes a work of reference upon the prun¬ 
ing, not merely of exhibition Roses, but 
of an immense number of varieties here 
listed, with a reference to an illustration 
showing how each variety may look before 
and after pruning. Instructions for prun¬ 
ing are also given in the form of short 
articles, each occupying only part of a page 
of the book. 
Under Instruction I. we note that hybrid 
perpetuals, Hybrid Teas, and Noisettes for 
exhibition purposes are discussed. The 
note refers to those varieties which require 
hard pruning in order to get blooms of high 
quality for the exhibition board. Those 
Roses which are weak growers require to be 
pruned hard back, and the method of doinsr 
this is shown on the pages preceding and 
following the article, showing how the Rose 
bush looked before the application of the 
knife and afterwards. All dead snags are 
cut away to the base, while the weak shoots 
are similarly dealt with. A number of 
healthy shoots are cut entirely away in order 
to reduce the number and prevent crowding. 
The remainder are then cut back to three or 
four eyes from the ba^e of the previous 
year’s wood. 
As a result of this pruning the cultivator 
may find that the bush is throwing up a 
greater number of young shoots than is 
desirable. When this happens towards the 
end of May some of the surplus shoots may 
be removed with the fingers or a knife, ac¬ 
cording to circumstances. At the same 
time the flower buds may be beginning to 
show, or should be, and those shoots that 
are evidently becoming blind should be dis¬ 
pensed with, leaving a sufficient number of 
those that remain to develop to the flower¬ 
ing stage. By looking at the unpruned and 
