The Garden. Pruning Roses.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 215, 13 August 1887, Page 1

The Garden. Pruning Roses.

As the season for pruning rosos is just to hand, I will reprint extracts from an article written for " Cassell's Popular Gardening "byT. D. Fish. The pruning of roses, though less severe than it used to be, is far more complicated. Only a few years •inco the pruning of rosos was as simplo ivnd easy as that of gooseberries or currants. So soon after the fall of the leaf as might be, the pruning was set about and completed. A good deal of thought and skill was bestowed on the character of the cut whether it should be up or down, or sideways, at a long or acute angle, or as nearly straight across the shoot as possible. Close and severe pruning was also all but universal, and the more plants were cut, the better they wore supposed to thrive. All this is marvellously changed now ; pruning, from being almost wholly a more mechanical operation, has been exalted into the dignity of a science, and the old canon, cut deep or hard to find healih or bloom, is absolutely reversed by the modern dictum, the less pruning the better. Prevention better than cure has also been applied to the pruning of roses, with the happiest results ; growth is now directed into more profitable channels than the production of fagots for the oven or the making of charred refuse or burned earth for the roots of roses. It is moulded into blooming or furnishing shoots from the first. All this, however, adds very much to the difficulties of pruning : fiom a single action at a set time, it has spread out into several distinct inteiferences at different periods of growth. From being confined to the tops only it has descended to the roots as well ; at one time resorted to chiefly as a handy means of limiting the area of plants, it has now become a mighty force in the hands of cultivate] s in moulding their forms and controlling "the quantity and quality of their produce. Roughly divided, the pruning of roses resolves itself into disbudding, pinching, summer, autumn, winter, spring, and root pruning.

Disbudding.— This is one of the most important and newest arts in modern loseculture. The term hero does not apply to the thinning of blossom buds, which is common enough, but to the thinning out of the wood-buds of roses, during the autumn, early spring or summer. This is often practised on vines and plants, and there is no objection to its application to roses, excepting the time that it takes. It is obvious, however, that if every alternate bud is removed horn the shoot, it will be so much less hard to prune at any future time. JMore th un this, if these buds are removed in the autumn during the process of bud-filling, those left will be the better filled in consequence. The leaves should on no account be removed with the buds, as if left intact, and finding no buds to nurse up at their base, they will speedily begin to pass on their supplies to the bud nearest to them. These disbuddings, while the bud is still in embryo, need careful manipulation and a sharp knife. Practice, however, renders the process comparatively easy. A mere touch with a hot wire is the quickest mode of killing the buds ; and a small movable furnace, with half-a-dozen such heaters, would enable one expert to virtually disbud an enormous quantity of roses in a day without injury to the bark, leaf, or wood left.

Root Pruning. — This of necessity has always been more or less practised. Unless roses were sown or budded in their permanent quarters, it is obvious that they could not be placed there without more or less root-pruning, but the above is compulsory. By root-pruning here is meant special and voluntary pruning for specific purposes. The first of these is to prevent the need of so much top pruning. A roseplant runs to wood chiefly. The old remedy was to cut the wood back severely. The result was mostly more wood still, and of greater strength than before. The modern remedy for excessive top growth is root-pruning. Search out for and find a few of the strongest roots, cut them back to within a foot or so of the root stock, and any excess of top growth will begin to cease from thai moment. Another result of root-pruning is an increased amount of bloom. Moderate-sized wood is generally more fioriferous than that which is more robust. But in addition to that, a reduction of the number of the X'oots and their disturbance favour bloom and discourage growth.

Method and Times of Root-Pruning.— These, as we have already seen, are indirect and direct. The mere moving of tho roots to see if the pruning be needful, is an example «f the former, and even were none cut or destroyed, some of the benefit of pruning would result from it. The extent of the direct pruning will have to be determined on the spot, and will depend on tho number, size and health, fleetness or otherwise of the roots and the vigour of the top. One-half or two-thirds of the stronger may generally be cut with safety. The uncovering of the roots also affords an excellent opportunity of removing the v/hole of the underground stems or suckers, and of applying fresh soils or composts. These will largely assist in the formation and rapid development of a better class of — that is more fibrous — roots. Hortus, in " Evening Star." (To be Continued.)

The Pope's Jubilee present to the Queen is one of the finest pieces of Roman mosaic ever seen. It is a perfect reproduction of Raphael's representation of poetry in the Stanza del la Segnatura, which is one of the most marvellous art treasures of the Vatican. I saw the picture when in Rome some weeks a^o, and can well imagine that to reproduce it in mosaic must have taken (it is stated) two men nearly two yeara.