88 
THE GARDENING WORLD, 
February 6 , igog. 
me a short article on how to prune different 
kinds of Roses. (A. G. Henderson, Staf¬ 
ford.) 
We presume you have the names of your 
Roses, or at all events know the groups or 
classes to which they belong, otherwise the 
articles referring to any particular type 
would not be of much service. You do not 
state whether you wish them for exhibition, 
or for mere garden decoration, but we pre¬ 
sume you merely wish to grow Roses for 
the latter purpose. When the weather is 
open you can commence pruning Provence 
Roses or Moss Roses, also any of the French 
and Damask Roses. These are all very 
hardy and do not start into growth early. 
If the bushes are in any way crowded, cut 
out some of the oldest stems right to the 
base. Younger ones bearing side shoots may 
have the best of these shoots shortened to 
about four or six eyes. These Roses get 
taller than those grown for exhibition, but 
they flower better under those conditions 
than if hard pruned like an exhibition Rose. 
If there are any young shoots which came 
up last year, they may be left 12 in. to 15 in. 
long. All weak and dead wood should, of 
course, be cut away. In the case of French 
and Damask Roses,. you should treat them 
according to their vigour of growth. The 
striped Rosa Mundi is a good example of 
this type, and should be thinned out in the 
same way as those already mentioned, always 
keeping the youngest wood and cutting away 
old stems where crowded, and weak and 
useless shoots. Hybrid Perpetuals, Hybrid 
Teas, Tea and Noisette Roses grown for 
garden decoration should be pruned accord¬ 
ing to their vigour of growth. In the case 
of those that are weak growers, that is, 
which make short shoots, you should proceed 
to cut away weak and useless twigs and old 
dead material. Then if the plant requires 
thinning, some of the oldest stems, that is, 
those that are two years old or more, should 
be cut away, provided always you have 
plenty of strong young shoots to take their 
place. The strong lateral shoots made last 
year upon two-year-old stems should be 
shortened back to four or six eyes. The 
stems that come up from the base may be 
left about 9 in. long. In pruning you need 
not keep yourself rigidly to the number of 
eyes, but look for one pointing outwards. 
Cut the shoot immediately above this, but 
not too near so as to endanger the bud. The 
reason for this is that buds develop into 
shoots going in the same direction, and when 
pointing outwards from the centre of the 
bush they thus keep the centre open. In the 
above sections of Roses some are very strong 
growers, and they should not be so hard 
pruned as those that are Weak growers, 
otherwise you may get plenty of wood next 
year but not many flowers. The thinning 
out should be done on the same principle as 
already stated, and the strong young growths 
from laterals should be cut to four or five 
eyes. In the case of strong shoots coming 
from the base you might leave 12 in. to 
14 in. long, according to their strength. 
Amongst the China Roses there are some 
which make bushes 2 ft. high, and these 
should not be very severely pruned. After 
all danger of frost has gone commence by 
cutting away all the dead wood and the 
tips which have been killed, and you may 
find that no further pruning is necessary. 
There is still a dwarfer section of China 
Roses naturally making little bushes, and 
each shoot of these should be cut back to a 
few eyes from the ground. Verv weak 
shoots not likely to flower should, of course, 
be cut to one bud at the base, or even re¬ 
moved altogether if they are crowding the 
bush in any way. If you have other Roses 
not belonging to the above sections, please 
let us know. 
3 5 99. Laying Out a Rose Garden. 
The enclosed plan represents a piece of 
ground which I wish to lay out as a Rose 
garden. At present it is a lawn. I should 
be glad of any hints, and will be pleased to 
recoup you any expense to which you may 
be put in this connection. I rather fancy a 
wire arch for ramblers as an entrance from 
the gravel path to finish off a path which 
might run through the Rose garden. Will 
you also tell me if ramblers would thrive 
on the wire fence 6 ft. high behind which 
is the board fence 12 ft. high, with disused 
road between? (Emma Thornton, St. Peters¬ 
burg, Russia.) 
If Roses succeed well in your neighbour¬ 
hood, there is no reason why you should 
not have a beautiful Rose garden on the 
ground marked out on the plan. From what 
we can see of it, there is nothing to ob¬ 
struct the light, except that high wooden 
fence, but as the disused road is 13^ ft. wide, 
there should be ample light, even for that 
open wire fence upon which you wish to 
grow Roses. A very important matter is the 
preparation of the soil, especially where it 
has not been cultivated for some years pre¬ 
viously. The land should be trenched all 
over 2^ ft. deep, breaking up the soil and 
working in plenty of rank cow manure, if 
you can get it. Anyway, manure containing 
straw from the cow-house or stables is a very 
important ingredient in the growing of 
Roses. If the soil is heavy and inclined to 
clay, stable manure would lighten it better 
than cow manure, but the latter is best for 
light, sandy and gravelly soils. While the 
work is proceeding it would be well to see 
that there are no grubs, wireworms, or other 
garden enemies in the soil, as they are very 
destructive to the roots of Roses. All such 
insect enemies should, be destroyed. The 
work of trenching should be taken in hand 
at the earliest moment when the ground is 
not frozen. There are several artificial 
manures which would be of advantage to 
you, if you can get them, including super¬ 
phosphate, ground bones and kainit. If 
you have heaps of prunings or old trees that 
have been cut down, they might be burned 
in a heap and the ashes spread over the soil 
after it has been trenched. When about to 
plant Roses against the wire arch a hole at 
least 2 ft. square and equally deep should 
be taken out for each plant. Manure should 
be worked into the soil before returning it; 
loosening up the soil in this way gives the 
Roses a good start. The Silver Birches may 
be left, if you prefer them, and the ground 
should be trenched within a certain distance 
of them for the benefit of the Roses, but not 
too near to damage too many of the roots. 
About 3 ft. .to 4 ft. from the trunk would 
leave the Birches quite safe. We see no 
reason why you should not grow Roses 
against the sunny walls of the house, as 
well as upon the balcony, as they face south. 
You require a selection for this purpose, how¬ 
ever. If you would like particular varieties 
for given situations, please let us know. The 
whole of that wire fence may be covered 
with rambler Roses and allied kinds, such 
as Dorothy Perkins, Lady Gay and other 
hybrids of R. wichuraiana. Most, of these 
delight in being planted in situations where 
the wind can blow through them, provided 
the. situation is not wind swept for long 
periods together. 
3600. Suitable Roses for a Border. 
I should be much obliged if you would 
kindly give me a little advice as to a pro¬ 
posed Rose border. I have been a reader of 
your paper for two years, and have not 
troubled you before. In my garden, which 
is 60 ft. long and 18 ft. 6 in. wide, I have 
a border 45 ft. by 4 ft., facing west-south¬ 
west, which I want to fill with dwarf Roses, 
with, perhaps, a pillar Rose here and there 
at the back (standards are really too dear 
for my pocket). The soil is medium and of 
a loamy nature. The subsoil is gravel, 
have noticed that Roses grow well in thi 
district. On the enclosed plan of the gar 
den I should be grateful of your advice (1 
as to desirable sorts to grow, (2) the numbe: 
of plants required. I am aware that it woulc 
be better to plant the more vigorous in tin 
back row, but a hint as to grouping th< 
colours would be very acceptable, for I hav ( 
seen somewhere in The Gardening Wokli 
that even in a mixed Rose border it is bac I 
to have too patchy an arrangement. Any 
further information that you think would be 
useful would be welcomed. When once plan 
ted, they are to be permanent. I should like 
space left for a groundwork of Violas. I 
thought it would be a good idea to have twc 
plants of each-variety, but, of course, I leave 
this to you. I already have the under-men¬ 
tioned varieties, and a dozen unnamed varie¬ 
ties. (Thos. Mills, Middlesex.) 
In a measure we agree with you in the 
grouping of Roses as to colour, but as you 
have a dozen unnamed varieties, it will be 
impossible to group those with any intelli¬ 
gence or knowledge. We advise you to keep 
them in the front row of the border, and 
some of them may be worth retaining there, 
while others may not be worth cultivation! 
Some re-arrangement may be necessary, in 
all probability, if you wish to group them 
according to colours. Without crowding 
that Rose border 45 ft. in length, we should 
advise you to plant the Ros.es 3 ft. apart m 
the back row, which should* be 18 in. from 
the fence. This will allow for fifteen Roses 
at 3 ft. apart. In the centre, plant your 
standard of Mme. A. Chatenay. Then, as 
you wish some pillar Roses, we have selected 
four, so that you will have five tall ones j 
placed at regular distances along the back 
line. Before commencing to plant any, put 
in a stake where each Rose should be. On 
one side of the standard, missing two holes 
for dwarf Roses, you could plant Billiard 
et Barre (yellow); then, at the same distance ' 
from the standard on the other side, plant 
Papillon (pink and white); then, at 
the second hole' from one end, plant 
Gruss an Teplitz (crimson), and at 
the second hole from the other end 
plant Ards Pillar (velvety crimson). 
The other Roses which you mention, and 
some which we shall add, can then be 
grouped so as to harmonise with the stan¬ 
dard and the four pillars named. In the 
back line on either side of the standard you 
could plant such pink and rose varieties as 
you already have, namely, Mrs. J. Laing, 
La France, Caroline Testout, Ulrich Brun- j 
ner and S. M. Rodocanachi. The other varie- 1 | 
ties which you mention are darker, namely, 
Hugh Dickson, Prince C. de Rohan, Abel 
Carriere and Thomas Mills. Two of these 
should be planted close by Gruss an Tep¬ 
litz, and the other two by Ards Pillar, so 
as to get the reds and crimsons together. 
Frau Carl Druschki should be planted in 
the neighbourhood of Papillon. These will 
make fifteen, and completely fill the back 
line. The Other varieties you have, namely, 
K. A. Victoria, G. Nabonnand and Lady 
Roberts, should be planted in the- front line 
in the near neighbourhood of Papillon, as 
they are nearly white, with various other 
shades that harmonise. As the front line , 
will take twenty-two, Roses at 2 ft. apart, 
the twelve unnamed varieties will have tn 
go into this line, so that you only require 
seven more Roses to fill the border. The 
front line should be 2 ft. from the back line 
and have the Roses planted alternately, if 
possible. This will only leave 6 in. from 
the front, but if you would like a line of 
Violas along the front you could leave a 
margin of 12 in., so that the two lines of 
Roses will be nearer to each other. Even 
this distance will leave room for a carpet of 
Violas for some years. The seven others 
which we recommend you to plant in the 
