In early March the Gallica; Damask; [Alba]; Hybrid Chinas; and Sweet Briars. To be followed by Hybrid Bourbons; Hybrid Noisettes and Musks; Austrian and Scotch Briars; Multifloras; Ramblers; Wichuraianas; Chinas; Dijon Teas; dwarf Polyanthas; and dwarf and standard Hybrid Perpetuals and Hybrid Teas.
Climbing varieties of Noisettes, Teas, Hybrid Teas, and Hybrid Perpetuals, may be thinned out, if necessary, after flowering in summer. But they must be pruned in March.
In April the Teas and Noisettes, both dwarf and standard, and the Banksian roses are pruned.
How to prune.—This is a much-disputed subject among rose growers, and as authorities differ widely with regard to it, some advocating hard pruning, and others just as strongly swearing by light pruning, so do they differ as to the instrument to be used. The pruning knife is most generally recommended; while the sécateur, so universally in use on the Continent, is advised merely for the cutting of dead wood. But the knife has its disadvantages, especially in the hands of a woman. For not only may one get an ugly cut with it: but even in a man's hands I have seen the plant pulled about more than I like, in cutting a tough branch. I am therefore delighted to find that so great an authority as the Rev. J. H. Pemberton advocates the use of the sécateur for all pruning, as for many years I have used nothing else. The amount of time and strength it saves one is infinite, to say nothing of the comfort of so handy a weapon.
There are, however, sécateurs and sécateurs—and a poor one is worse than useless. Its blades must be as sharp as a razor, and so accurately set that they make a perfectly clean cut right through, without pinching the branch or tearing the bark. In choosing one, it is well to try it on a sheet of tissue paper. If it cuts the paper like a sharp pair of scissors, it is all right. But if it curls the paper round the blade, instead of making a clean cut, it is to be avoided. After trying many different makes, I have found that the Sécateur Montreuil, which I have now procured for several years from MM. Vilmorin, Andrieux et Cie., 4, Quai de la Megisserie, Paris, is far the best I can get. It costs 8 francs, and is made in three sizes.
As to hard-and-fast rules in pruning, there are but two.
| Fig. 2a.—Rosebush requiring light pruning—unpruned. | Fig. 2b.—Rosebush requiring light pruning—pruned. |
| 1.—Rose Requiring Moderate Pruning. Unpruned. | 1.—Rose Requiring Moderate Pruning. Pruned. |
1. Prune weak-growing roses much harder than strong-growing roses. As the object of pruning is to throw the sap into the young shoots which will start from the dormant buds or "eyes," in order to make them flower, a weak-growing rose must be pruned hard so as to concentrate all the vigour of the plant on the few dormant buds we leave. While if we prune a strong-growing rose very hard we only make it throw yet longer shoots, which soon get out of all bounds, and run to wood and not to blossom.
2. Always prune to a dormant bud which points outwards. This is done to keep the centre of the plant comparatively free, by preventing the shoots crossing and choking each other.