Chapter 18 (extract 1) of "Roses for English Gardens" by Jekyll and Mawley (1902), in which Mr Mawley discusses rose pruning and distinguishes two processes: "thinning out" and "shortening back".
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Illustration: Exhibition rose before and after pruning.
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CHAPTER XVIII
PRUNING ROSES
There are few things connected with Rose culture so little understood by amateurs and gardeners generally as pruning; and it must be acknowledged that the number of different kinds of Roses, and the very different treatment many of them require at the hands of the pruner, cannot but make this operation seem at first sight a very puzzling one. The following simple directions will, however, serve to show that it is not nearly so complicated as it is generally thought to be.
Mr. W. F. Cooling, in an excellent paper read before the National Rose Society in 1898, very cleverly separates the numerous classes of Roses into two broad and distinct divisions. In the first of these divisions he places the Hybrid Perpetuals, Hybrid Teas, and Teas—all of which (the climbing varieties alone excepted) require more or less hard pruning; while in the second division we find the Hybrid Sweet-briers, the Austrian Briers, all the extra vigorous and climbing Roses and many garden or decorative Roses, which, although of comparatively dwarf habit, need little spring pruning, or none at all.
Before proceeding to treat of the various kinds of Roses more in detail it may be well to point out a few considerations which apply to the art of pruning generally. In the first place, the object of pruning is to add increased vigour to the plant, and at the same time to regulate its growth. It is difficult to understand at first, but nevertheless perfectly true, that the more severely a Rose plant is pruned the stronger will be the shoots which result from that apparently murderous treatment. There is also another general rule which naturally arises out of the foregoing, and that is the weaker the plant the more closely it should be cut back, and the more vigorous it is the longer should the shoots be left.
As a matter of fact, pruning consists of two operations which are altogether distinct. Firstly, thinning out all the decayed, crowded and otherwise useless shoots; secondly, the pruning proper, that is to say, the shortening back of the shoots that remain after the thinning-out process has been completed. There is no Rose that does not from time to time require some thinning out, but there are many which require very little, if any, shortening back. When removing the useless shoots they should be cut clean out, either down to the base of the plant or to the shoot from which they spring, as the case may be. Then again, in the case of dwarf or bush Roses, the pruner has to decide whether he requires a small number of extra large flowers or a larger number of moderate-sized ones.
If the former, both the thinning out and pruning must be severe, whereas in the other case rather more shoots should be allowed to remain, and these may be left longer. After a very cold winter the pruner will find that, except in the case of quite hardy varieties, he has little choice in the matter of pruning, the keen knife of the frost having come before him and already pruned his Roses after its own ruthless fashion. In this case all the dead shoots should be cut away, and those that remain be afterwards examined. At first sight they may appear altogether uninjured, but on cutting them it will be seen that scarcely any sound wood is anywhere to be found.
The best test of frost injuries is the colour of the pith. If this be white, cream-coloured, or even slightly stained, the wood may be regarded as sufficiently sound to cut back to, but if the pith be brown sounder wood must be sought for, even if this be only met with beneath the surface of the beds.
Armed with a pruning knife, which should be of medium size and kept always with a keen edge, an easy pair of gardening gloves, a hone on which to sharpen the knife, and a kneeling pad, the pruner will require nothing more except a small saw, which will prove of great service in removing extra large shoots and dead stumps. A really good secateur may be used instead of a knife if preferred. In pruning, the cut should be always made almost immediately above a dormant bud pointing outwards. In all but an exhibitor's garden the best time to prune Roses is early in April.
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More: Rose pruning - varieties needing close pruning; varieties needing little or no pruning.
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