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CAMBRIAN GOSSIP.| _.......----....

COLWYN BAY. 1 ---...-."-,-..........----

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-F' If any reader who isin a difficnl ty with reference to his garden, will write directly to the ad- dress given beneath, his queries will be an- swered, free of charge, and by return of post. —EDITOR] THE ROSE GARDEN. March is a busy month in every part of the garden, yet the rosarian mast find time for the pruning of all out-door roses, excepting noi- settes and teas, which are best left in their winter coverings until early April, for making up arrears of planting, and for many other equally important matters. To grasp the Lrue principle of pruning, one has but to watch an unpruned tree for several years. The strong shoots will Sower well the second year, but ra- pidly become weaker towards the end in a sea- son or two, while other strong shoots are formed lower down, which absorb the sap and starve the original shoots. Thus it is evident that the objects of pruning should be to keep all parts of the plant equally vigorous, to mould them into pleasing shapes, and to increase the size and beauty of the flowers. To prevent the shoots starving one another it is obvious thai a good proportion of them must be removed yearly, more especially as each good bloom re- quires a large amount of sap to nourish it pro- perly, and to bring out its colours vividly. The necessary pruning of wall roses is a simple matter, commencing with the removal of weak- ly or dead wood. Select the ripest and plum- pest shoots for nailing against the wall, and cut the coarse, soft, and overgrown ones entire- ly. If necessary, the medium sized ones must be thinned, for it is most important to avoid crowding, and some of them may be slightly cut back. With nearly all climbing roses it is a. great mistake to cut back the long, strong shoots of the previous autumn, as these will bear the best flowers. If there is no room for them, take them out altogether, but never shorten then to less than three-fourths of their original length. Lay in these shoots as nearly in a horizontal position as possible, unless ad- ditional height be required, in which case they must of course be trained upwards, a practice which leads to the production of wood at the expense of bloom. Generally speaking, all that climbling roses need is a slight thinning out of superfluous or decayed wood and a moderate shortening back of long strong shoots. Now, turning to the subject of the strong-growing hardy summer roses, so popular everywhere, we must cut out all dead and weakly wood, re- gardless of its size. Those shoots, which m '.de but little growth last season, as compared with their neighbours, may be considered weakly and useless. When this has been |done, the plant has to be trimmed into a well-shaped handsome bush, so that no branches cross one another. Cut out the badly placed shoots right at the base. To partially cut them back only make a bad matter worse by encouraging them to grow again even more vigorously than be- fore. So far as possible get rid of as much old wood as possible each year; and thin the shoots of robust growing kinds by removing some of them entirely rather than by pruning them back. Of course, it is important to cut to an outward bud, because the new shoot will as- suredly grow in the direction in which the bud points naturally. The great difficulty as to how far, that is to how many buds, the shoots should be removed can only be settled by a consideration of the reasons for pruning at all. If a plant is of vigorous growth and of a robust variety, it will be able to supply sap enough for more buds than would a weakly specimen of a less robust kind. Thus we should leave more buds on the stronger rose, perhaps from five to six on each shoot; and if we do not do so, the shoots will run to wood or produce ill- shaped unsightly blossoms. In proportion as a plant is more and more delicate and weakly, fewer and fewer buds must be left, because there will probably be only sufficient sap to supply one, or, at most, two buds t@ a shoot So then, the rule of pruning is to leave more or less buds, from 6 to I., on each shoot, according as the individual variety is of robust race and constitution. This plan will appear very singu- lar to the novice, since it would on first thought seem the height of folly to cut away nearly the whole of a valuable and delicate variety, and yet leave the long shoots intact, or nearly so, on more vigorous roses, which would naturally be so much better able to endure severe treat- ment. Late, gross and unripened shoots, of green colour, and with a large amount of pith, must be removed to leave plenty of room for the more valuable, finn, brown, and well- ripened ones; and those which have been in- jured by frost ought to be cut back to a bud, where the pith is sound and white. Occasion- ally a great, over-grown shoot will be found absorbing more than its share of sap to the detriment of its fellows it should be either re- moved altogether, or if very well ripened, shortened and allowed abundant space. If roses ate kept properly pruned yearly, they give very Jittle trouble, but where the work has been neglected for one single year, it is often necessary to cut a very large proportion of the wood away to form a new shape alto- gether. By thinning out the ill placed pushing buds in May, much can be done to remedy pre- vious neglect, but though such buds are very soft, and are therefore easily rubbed off, they should always be cut off closely with a knife in preference. For ordinary purposes tea roses in the open need but little pruning. In- deed, one is fortunate if the frosts do not prune them back too hard, notwithstanding the pro- tection afforded hut for -exhibition purposes they must be pruned as severely as the hardy perennial roses. SPECIAL NOTICE. Owing to the remarkable number of applica- tions for our 'Culture of Vegetables,'conse- quent on purchasers showing their copies to their friends, we have been for a few days un- able to supply copies, as the first edition have been sold. Our printing department, however, hope to have a further edition ready by the middle of the week, when copies will he again obtainable. The second edition will be sold at cost price 6d. only; and by printing some thousands of copies at once, we hope to reduce the price somewhat for the third edition. It appears to have been as cordially welcomed by the agricultural and gardening press as by ouv readers. E. KEMP TOOGOOD, F.R.H.S., pro Toogood and Sons, The Royal Seed Establishment. Southampton.

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