In the Garden In Queen Mary's garden in Regent's Park
during Easter week the craft of pruning roses was demonstrated to many observers. March is the best month for the pruning of most roses, though it is best to wait for April in respect of tea roses. Almost all the experts believe in very hard pruning, especially for roses, though many fruit trees are included in the severe treatment. There was a great outcry some years ago when that great man of science, Mr. Spencer Pickering, published his belief, founded on long and accurate tests, that wholly unpruned apples bore more heavily than pruned apples, and lightly pruned bushes more than severely pruned bushes. The experts should know their business best, but it is sometimes the case that they seek to produce a comparatively few perfect flowers or fruit, while the amateurs would prefer a greater number of less perfect form. In perhaps the costliest of English gardens all pruning of the Poulsen roses is forbidden ; and last year, at any rate, these unpruned bushes were a glorious spectacle. A few bush roses that will become great full bushes, such as Zephyrine Drouhin, may be given even less pruning than the climbers. For the rest let us follow the experts of the Office of Works. Many prefer the knife to the secateur, but the quality of extreme sharpness is necessary for both instru- ments if pruning is to do good. W. BEACH THOMAS.
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