82 
PRUNING. 
eyes, care lleing taken that the top eye is pointing onward; the ob¬ 
ject of this is to obtain strong branches growing outward, to make a 
wide head. As the shoots grow, notice the best and strongest that are 
growing in a position to widen the head, and leave them to make all 
the growth they can; allow any shoot that is growing up strong in the 
centre to grow also; and further, a most important point, rub oft, or 
cut off with a very sharp knife, all weakly growing shoots, all that 
grow inward and cross the head, and wherever two cross each other, 
remove the weakest. The branches that grow outward will be good 
enough and well enough in one season’s growth to leave any length 
you please towards making a proper sized head; but as five or six of 
these branches will not make a full head, the next season they may be 
shortened to half their growth, taking care that the end bud must be 
an under one, for all the tendency of the Rose is to grow upward, and 
’t is only when the natural growth is outward, or downward, that the 
weight prevails to keep it in a horizontal or drooping position. This 
second year, and indeed every subsequent year, every branch that does 
not assist to form a handsome head without crowding, must be taken 
