CHAPTER II
PRUNING AND PROPAGATING
Of all the many toils and anxieties that beset the path of the amateur rosarian, I think we may safely say pruning is the chief. The rules to be observed are few. The idiosyncrasies of each rose are many. And the demands upon one's own judgment and initiative are constant.
Two things have to be considered before we begin the puzzling task. Are we growing our roses for exhibition, or at all events for a very few very perfect blooms? Or are we growing them for quantity, for mere enjoyment, on the "cut and come again" principle, which enables one not only to fill the house without robbing the garden, but to fill the hands of every one who comes into the garden and looks at the masses of blossom with longing eyes?
As I do not exhibit, the second plan is the one I have studied most closely. For the other I must refer my readers to my friend the Rev. F. Page-Roberts' valuable notes, on how to grow and show roses in Chapter XI.
When to prune.—The old-fashioned plan of pruning all roses in the autumn has now been, happily for their well-being, given up in England. It was owing to this that many of the earlier varieties of Tea roses, and even some of the Bourbons and Hybrid Perpetuals, were considered 50 years ago too "tender" to plant freely out of doors.
Pruning now begins in February, and goes on through March and April.
In February we begin to prune the Rugosas; Boursaults; Sempervirens; and Ayrshires.
In February and early March, the Provence; [Moss]; miniature Provence; many of the Species, such as Alpina, Moschata, and Bracteata, and their hybrids.