ABOUT ROSE PRUNING.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVLI, Issue 12, 20 September 1911, Page 41

ABOUT ROSE PRUNING.

• 1 the “Sydney Daily Telegraph.) ' ' ‘ s al,ou 't the time of the year yiii’ii the average amateur rose-grower ?. ious to begin pruning the roses. lw be a true “greenhorn” he will bo *' e hoy with a new toy, all anxiety 0 Know whore to begin, and how to rontmuo the work. The less he knows u i’ 1 • h run ' u K roses the more anxious ]‘ e: Indeed it is just likely that ie i. .vice will have already cut more ,' a ”."ulf his plants. If so, very much to T wo Ha - V to day will not apply ’ 11 l or weeks past quite n number I people have been waiting for the with sharpened secateurs, risn'm * .’" ig,,t eut U,e h<,ads off their o' '*■ This comes Of over anxiety. Bomeone possibly told them that July

was the right month to start cutting, and as a "nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse” they took "time by the forelock” and jumped in just a shade too soon. However, not very much injury has been done.

Before proceeding any further with our talk, left us give you some idea of the reasons why the pruning is done. In the first place, rose plants are cut to keep them shapely; in the second, to improve the quality of the flowers. Someone is sure to ask why it is necessary to keep the bushes shapely? Anyone who knows the growth of a rose bush knows that it is next to impossible to get a nice, trimlooking plant if the rose is allowed to take its own course of growth. At some time or other knifing is necessary, either to cut away come straggly thin pieces of stem which are of little value; to cut out dead wood, or to shorten back something that is growing altogether too vigorously. Just how to make this matter plain in words is rather a difficulty. Still we can try and give you some idea.

The second reason for the pruning, that the action of cutting away the old stems improves the quality of the flowers, is just as important a matter as the first one, dealing with the shaping of the plant. If you grow roses at all, you might just as well have the best flowers that can be had as bother with medium quality stock. Then make up your mind that pruning will improve the shape of your plants, as well as “increase the quality and beanty of the flowers.

Are your secateurs sharp? No use starting pruning operations with blunt tools. Get them fixed up, or purchase a new' pair before the day is out. And be ready for next week, when, all things considered, those who are near the sea coast can start their pruning. Whatever you do, don’t hurry. Go slow' and do the thing properly. There is no sense in rushing a matter to do it 'badly, when, with a little time and care, one can do the work properly. If your bushes are at all big a pruning saw will also be necessary, for, where the limbs are big and old, they take a lot of cutting out. Secateurs and knife are all very well for ordinary-sized shoots, but one must have a very strong wrist and a very keen-edged pair of cutters to get through. The regulation saw, which is a V-shaped, two-edged sort of thing, can be purchased for about half a crown. It is a handy tool for shrubs and fruit trees, as well as for roses. When the tools are ready, and the ground is dry enough to let you on it without going over your ankles deep, make a start. Tramping over wet ground should be avoided when possible. Wait a week rather than do it.

Begin by tackling one of the smallest plants in the garden. Do this to get your hand in. If you take on one of the biggest and get tangled up you will very likely throw up the job altogether, whereas when you feel that the small thing has been shaped up nicely you will take heart and go on. Practice makes one perfect, even in the matter of rose pruning. Cut the small plants least of all. Cut the medium-sized roses moderately.

Cut the big rose bushes as hard as you like.

We are talking now of the freef blooming classes known as teas or hybrid teas. Climbers, hybrid perpeiuals, and the other classes will take another talk.

Then the rose you start on is to be one of the smallest. A plant that was only put out this season should not require much pruning if it got anything like a cutting at the time it was given a place in the garden. Of course, if it was allowed to retain all the limbs supplied by the nurseryman you had better alter its appearance by cutting the shoots down to within six or eight inches of the ground. This advice applies to all kinds of roses. Treat them all alike for the first season, and be not afraid to use the knife vigorously. Select a plump-looking eye about the height mentioned above, and make the cut on the slant and just about a-quarter of an inch above it. Where there arc two or more stems get the eyes all pointing outward. Three eyes that are all looking towards the inside would give you throe growths making into the heart of the plant. When these had grown 7in. or Bin. they would be crossing one another at a very inconvenient angle. Sooner or later you would have to make another hard pruning to got a new start. So find these outward eyes, a, everything

depends on the shoots making a good beginning. Three short stems will not be too many to leave. Better three even than one unless you are after trying to get the plant on one long leg, half or full standard fashion. No matter wh it new growths have made since you planted the roses, you cut as directed. New shoots are of little value at pruning time. The rule is to discard these altogether. There is plenty of time between the end of the month and the early weeks in October to get all you require in rose growth. Get this idea into your head and l it no man or woman shift it. We make sacrifices to-day that our rose plants and our flowers might be better in the near future. ■Should there be any deal wood about, ■the small plants, cut it away. This is the first thing to do when you start to prime. Until the unelean bits are away the beginner can have no idea of how to handle the live wood that remains. Now for the next size. We are dealing with the different sizes so as to make our pruning talk the more easily understood. One-year-old plants are in mind just now. These should be carrying a fair amount of stem, some plump ami green and thorny, and not a little that is thin and weedy w.ith perhaps a stick or two that is quite dead. Cut the deid and the thin pieces oft' short against the thicker stems. (Leave no small bin t ends. Clean and close is one of the rules which should ‘be remembered. Don't forget it. Then size up the shoots that remain. How high are they? Up to the lowest button on your vest coat? Then cut them baek to about as high as your knee. Leave three or four stems. Any more are quite unnecessary. G"t the outgoing eyes again as a termination for each of the rose limbs. The cutting away of all the last- season’s growth will not matter a -bit. Lop it off. The new shoots ■which arise from the stout canes you have left will be very much stronger and .better than any that could come from the upper growths. The nearer the base the -better the rose growth is an axiom known to every man and woman who is an expert in the handling of the queen of flowers. Hunting as some people do for "Hower Ibud” is all foolishness. There are no eueh things on the average hardy 11. T. or T. rose. Every eye that gets a chance of putting up a fair fight should end in one or more beautiful flowers. So just pay no heed to the whisperings of the faddist who would have you spend your time in search of things that would be of no value if you found them. Every sound, green stalk has the power to throw out a blossom. Those which are plump and healthy have a much better chance of doing good work than Hie weaklings. You just take our advice and cut the yearling roses as hard as we say, and you will not be disappointed with the work the plants will do afterwards. The pruning we advise will give you shapeliness as well as high-quality blossoms. Plants that come in between the yearlings and the full-growers will stand a hard cutting. Let the light in the heart of the hush, and get rid of fully threefifths of alt the old wood. See that the

last cut is made in a good, plump, green stem. Anything that is soft and sappy must be cut right away at once. Such stuff is quite out of place now. In summer time when we are all anxious for good flowers, the big red stem is a tiling to look caret .illy after. Now, unfortunately, it must be swept away with a firm hand.

Now we come to the full grow n plants. What does full-grown mean? Anything from six to ten years; or to put the matter in a better way, a bush that is about sft. high and as many feet through. Such a rose bush presents rather a formidable appearance. It is just about enough to make a beginner sit down and think. If you should feel inclined to do that sort of thing give the game up. There need be no stopping, and little or no thinking, when the pruning of a very big rose bush is in hand. Just •eut, and cut, and cut again. 'There is nothing else for it. If you are io look for a right pointing eye for each of the 20 or 30 ends that you are to leave you will have a hard job to find them. Just say to yourself lam out to give this hush a thorough ‘’doing,’ and

see that you dp it. Decide upon the height you think the centre should be left, and make your ■first cuts there. If the rose bush was sft. high reduce it by quite half, leaving the highest part in the centre, and making the outside shoots somewhat lower ■ U give a little shapeliness to the shrub. If you have followed our oft-given advice to cut the flowers on long stems, there should be no trouble in finding nice plump shoots as the leaders for the carrying of next year’s flowering shoots. If’you are one of those niggardly folk who only snips off the smallest bit of footstalk with every flower, matters will be different. Your rose bushes will be covered with thin, weedy stems. That is the sort of punishment the plant hands out to those who do not treat her properly in the matter of flower cutting. Where there are very many thin ends the cutting must be carried into the thick wood lower down the stem. Cut away a foot, or two feet if you like. And don’t mind if you cannot find an “eye” where you think you want, it. for the rose has a way of hiding her intention under a very ugly exterior. You cut, and let the plant disclose her “eyes” when she is ready. lMuvli better do this than leave lengthy shoots which look like half-a-dozen zig-zags joined together. The advice you are getting has been put into practice time and again, and always with the best of results. C utting a full-grown rose bush never docs any injury. The knife to the rose is as medicine to the sick man. The more it is applied the better. , Some of our readers may still be in doubt. .. For these a story: , “A certain amateur rose-grower, who prided himself upon his collection of plants, had the misfortune to have his garden raided by a company of hungry goats. Chat left'little but the very old and thorny stems standing. All the tender, sweet shoots, and all the leaves as well, had disappeared. The rosegrower was in great distress. He sought out a friend who is supposed to know ‘a thing or two’ about the plants, and told the whole story, finishing the narrative with, ‘lt looks inighty like beginning again or giving the game up.’ ‘“No, it doesn’t,’ said the friend. ‘Just you go,home and trim up all the ragged ends with the secateurs, shorten back anything left standing, so as to make the plants as uniform as possible, and go about your liming, manuring, and digging just as if nothing had happened.’ “And what do you think was the result? The roses' flowered- as they had never flowered before!” The point the writer is aiming at is this: Instead of borrowing a goat to

chew the bushes to within a few inches of the ground, give the roses a rough handling yourself, and save the expense of the much maligned but very useful animal.

TYING DOWN T.ONG.CANED HOSES. With roses like Prince Camille de Rohan. J. B. Clark, Frau Karl Druschki, mid all those which make long canes during the late slimmer, nive effects can be had by liending tli P shoots over and atfuelling the ends to pegs to keep them down. Treated in this way, the .shoot breaks every upper eye and covers itself with flowers on a nice length of footstalk. Any of the pillar roses, or not.tpo vigorous climbers, can be treated in this way.

Primo back all the unbendable growths to about a loot from the ground-line, discard every thin, weedy shoot, and tie the rest. The growths can even bo taken horizontally along a footpath, twisted one round the other, or bo ai ranged in any form that suggests itself. The main point is to get them off the perpendicular and to break the sapflow, so as to get the best results from the spring blooming. Hybrid perpctuals so treated should have all the bent canes removed as soon as the flowers have fallen. This action will give the plants a chance of turning their attention to the production of other canes for tho following season. Roses like Belle SiebreCht, Frau Karl, or any of the climbers need not be shorn of the bent-down shoots. Shorten back the lateral growths that, carried tho flowers to within two or three “eyes” of the main stem, and by so doing get another crop of blooms. THE RAMBLER CLASS. Roses, like Dorothy Perkins, Crimson. Rambler, and Lady Gay, which is thought to be an improved Perkins, require special handling. < Jut the new wood not at all. Leave it quite alone. It is from last year’s •canes that we. get this year's flowers. So every “eye’’ you take away leaves you one 'duster of blossoms short. Cut out any pieces of dead or yellowing wood, but leave all the rest. Content yourself with arranging the new growths as near horizontal as you can get them; tie in all rampant growths, tand make matters as snug as you can, to hold the plant in position against any storm that oomes between this and the flowering time. If you have not included Dorothy Perkins, Lady Gay or White Dorothy in your rose selection, do so without delay, as these charming ramblers are quite indispensable. For cold country as well as along the CoastLine they are particularly good. PRUNING FOR HANDY SOIL GROWN ROSES. Generally the rose does not grow as vigorously in light as in moderately heavy country. For this reason we advise a lighter all round pruning for those who garden in sandy places. If you know tli<» growth is good and sure, rut hard. While there is any doubt, withhold the knife and be more lenient, for your plants, as a rule, do not grow like ours that are rooted in heavy land. Home of the varjetie*. of r-oursr, differ from tho m i jority, and make big stems in a short up. The-.e you wdl rut as hard as if they were in better country. All through Ihe I riming use your eyes. An}’ plant that is doing well will stand pruning; those that .are weedy should be dug up Tor burning.