Except in very cold districts, Roses should be pruned early in March. Tea Roses, however, should wait till the first week in April. The object of pruning is to induce the plant to make new wood, but the amount to be done varies greatly with the size and age of the Rose. Climbing Roses need not be pruned at all, but in the autumn any dead wood you see should be cut out. On strong-growing bush Roses you may leave six eyes on a stem; on weaker growths three or four eyes. If you look at a Rose-tree you will see what we mean by ‘eyes’ are the little knots or buds on the stalks. With a sharp knife you should slice off the upper part of the stalk at a bud that faces _outwards_, because then the new shoot will grow outwards, and make a better-shaped tree. All brown, dead wood should be cut away. There will be a great deal more for you to learn about pruning when you are older, either from books or from gardeners. We have only told you one or two of the simplest rules, so that in case you have no gardener or gardening friend to help you, you should not let your bush Roses grow quite wild. If your Roses have been given you, they may be on various stocks, and not on their own roots, so we think we must tell you how to know when it is the stock, and not the Rose, that is sending up its tiresome wild shoots. Most Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas, and Hybrid Teas have five leaves, but most ‘stocks’ have seven or nine leaves. When you see these wild shoots coming up out of the ground, you must cut them away, as they are using food that should go to your Roses. But never cut the shoots that come out of the base of the Polyantha or the Rambler Roses. These look very like suckers, but are the flowering shoots of the following year. You may just as well try to take a few cuttings from your own Roses, and, if they will let you, from other people’s, as if you could succeed you would soon raise a stock ‘on their own roots,’ and have no trouble with briars. August is the proper month for this operation, and what you will want is some silver sand, a sheltered corner, and a sharp knife. A cutting should be nine inches long, this year’s growth, hard and woody, but not succulent. It should either be cut straight across just below a joint, or torn away with a little tag or heel. Try both ways. All the leaves, as well as the tips, must be snipped off. Then make a little trench, fill with silver sand, and press your cuttings firmly in, letting them lie sideways rather than stand bolt upright. If you have a hand-light for them, so much the better, but they should strike without that provided you do not let the soil about them get dry or loose. The following year you will be able to transplant them, but while they are young it is advisable to pinch off their flowers. CHAPTER VIII CARNATIONS AND PINKS