HINTS ABOUT ROSES

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 32, 6 August 1936, Page 26

HINTS ABOUT ROSES

PEGGING AND PRUNING

Some roses, although not actually climbers,- make very strong growth, and these require less cutting back than weaker growers. A good way to treat this class of rose is to peg down the long wands. Instead of shortening the long shoots—they may be as much as 5 or 6 feet long—a peg is driven into the soil and the ends of the shoots tied to it. Treated in this way, the branches will produce blooms from almost every -bud. As the pegged-down branches do not usually bloom much after the first flowering, they should be cut well back to force the development of other branches, which, if vigorous enough, may in turn be pegged down similarly the following season.

In pruning climbing roses as distinct from ramblers, too much cutting should not be done. They do not produce new shoots from the base in" abundance as do most of the ramblers. New shoots usually spring some way up the old growths, so that it is not possible to cut out old branches altogether. Whenever an old branch, or part of it, can be replaced by a young one then it should be removed. Side shoots sliould be shortened on the old branches and the ends of the young growths be cut back if they are soft or thin. Care must be taken when pruning climbing "sports" or the plants may revert to the dwarf form's from which they originated and cease to show any tendency to climb. This class requires little pruning beyond cutting out' old or weakly growths where stronger, better ones have developed.