Before we come to the best time to use horse manure, two important points need to be made. First, the manure should be ‘well rotted’, and that means that it should have been composted, turned and aerated sufficiently to enable the decomposition processes to have progressed to a point where it is no longer possible to identify what it was to start with. By this time, it will have the consistency and colour of peat.

It may be that the horses have been fed a lot of hay, and in that case it is quite likely that some seed of the plants comprising the hay will have passed unharmed through the digestive tract of the animals and be ready to germinate as soon as conditions become suitable. Correct composting involves sustained heating to ‘cook’ and destroy any viable seed. Therefore, unless the manure has been ‘hot composted’ in order to become well rotted, you must expect to see grass and other weed germinating. The second reason for ‘well rotted’ is basically to have reduced the nitrogenous urine content which would assuredly encourage leaf and shoot growth, but this, because of the induced inbalance in relation to the hardening potash, will become soft, flabby and more susceptible to mildew and other fungus attack.

By the time it is well rotted, the respective nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents will have dispersed and reduced to very low and safe proportions. Thus the most beneficial use of animal manures like this is not for the nutrient content, but for the physical effect upon soil structure.

Almost all bush roses are propagated by budding just above soil level, and standards by implanting the bud high up on a briar stem. As soon as the nurseryman can see that the bud has ‘taken’ he removes the original ‘wild’ stock foliage and growth above the bud so that sap and energy is diverted and concentrated into the choice bud.

Quite often, especially in the first year or two of growth, and when a root stock is getting away strongly, it has more energy and vigour to push up than the bud or grafted scion can take, and it simply resorts to making an outlet for the excess energy by putting out shoots and growth of its own, called suckers and briars. These can arise from a dormant bud on the stock portion or from the callus tissue that arises from a wound, which explains why you should always be careful when hoeing or digging deeply enough to reach and snag the roots.

The invariable risk that follows is that, having found an escape hatch, the stock then pours in its energy - the sucker growth is its own natural tissue after all - and at once begins to ignore the bud or graft implanted in its side. This bud therefore begins to suffer from neglect and, if you don’t interfere to keep the growth growing the way you want, will suffer and may even wither and die.