PLANTING.

November and December are so well known to be favourable months for planting the summer roses, that it is thought by many amateurs no others are or can be so eligible; applied to dry sandy soils this is quite correct, but on wet retentive soils if the holes are opened in winter, so that the mould is pulverised by frost, February is much better. In light soils a mixture of well rotted manure and rich stiff loam from an old pasture, giving to each plant, if a standard, a wheelbarrowful, if a dwarf, about half that quantity, will be found the best compost; if the soil is stiff, the same quantity of manure and pit or road-sand, equal parts, will be most eligible; the roots of the plants will require but little pruning, merely shorten any that are long and straggling, and if the plants are very luxuriant, those planted in autumn may have their branches shortened to about half their length, to prevent the wind rocking them; in February they may be pruned as directed for each family; in springplanting, they may be pruned before they are planted; in every case, some manure to the extent of three or four inches in depth, should be placed on the surface round the stem of each plant; this keeps the roots in a moist state, and enriches the soil.

CULTIVATION OF SUMMER ROSES IN
POTS.

For this purpose, a selection of the finest double varieties are alone eligible. Plants worked on neat stems not more than four inches high, and with fibrous compact roots, so that they will admit of being placed in the centre of the pots, should be potted late in October, or early in November, in twenty-four sized or eight-inch pots, in a compost of loam and rotten manure, or loam and leaf mould and manure, in equal quantities; if to a bushel of this compost half a peck of pounded charcoal is added, it will be improved. After potting, they should be placed on slates, and then plunged in sawdust or old tan, so that the surface of the mould in the pots is covered about two inches in depth with the material used for plunging. A sunny exposed situation is better than under a wall, for when placed near a wall the branches always incline from it, so that the plant, in lieu of being round and compact, as it ought to be, becomes one-sided; in February following they may be pruned in closely, i. e. to within two or three buds of the base of each shoot, and remain plunged during the summer; additional vigour may be given by removing the sawdust or tan from the surface of the pots in March, and substituting rotten manure; during the summer all suckers must be carefully removed, and in June, July, and August all luxuriant shoots shortened, by pinching off their ends,

and superfluous shoots nipped in the bud; so that each plant is made to form a neat compact bush, not too much crowded with shoots. If this is properly attended to, they will scarcely require pruning the following spring, but only a few of the shoots thinned out, i. e. entirely removed. These plants will require abundance of water in dry hot weather in summer, and once a week in June and July they should be watered with guano water, 1 lb. to twelve gallons of water will be of sufficient strength; if not placed on slates, the pots must be removed once a fortnight to prevent the roots entering the soil underneath the pots, which will give them much additional vigour: but the check they receive when removed is very injurious; this must, therefore, be carefully guarded against. The above treatment is also applicable to Moss and Provence Roses on their own roots, which, when required for forcing, may at once be removed from the plunging-bed, after having remained there one summer, to the forcing-house*; those required for exhibition only, may also remain there till near the blooming season, when, if it is wished to retard them, they may be placed under a north wall, if to accelerate, they may be removed to the greenhouse, or to any pit or frame under glass.

With the exception of the Moss and Provence roses, which are, and always will be, favourites for forcing, summer roses are not so eligible for

* Directions for forcing roses will be found P. 217.

pot-culture, as the autumnal roses; they bloom but once, and, if intended for exhibition, it is so extremely difficult to have them in perfection in any given day: if the season is cold and cloudy it is most difficult to bring them forward, as fireheat in summer is injurious to roses brought from the open air, and, if dry and hot, it is equally difficult to retard them; at least this can be done only for a very short period.

Moss and Provence roses that have been forced have generally been thought to require a season's rest; but with the following treatment this will not be required. Presuming that they have bloomed in February or March, they should have their shoots shortened to within two or three buds, re-potted, and placed in a cold frame, plunged in the before-mentioned materials, and, towards the end of April, placed in the open air, as before directed; if carefully attended to during the summer, the plants will be sufficiently vigorous to bear forcing again the ensuing season; those plants intended only for exhibition, or to bloom at the usual season without forcing, may be shifted annually towards the end of September, the earth shaken entirely from the roots of the plants. From eight-inch pots they may be shifted into nine-inch or sixteen-sized pots; and it will not be advisable to place them in any of the larger-sized pots, unless plants are required of extra size, as they become heavy, and difficult to move with safety.

There appears to me much room for improve

ment in the pot-culture of summer roses. Why should they not have shade and shelter? are they less worthy than the gaudy but odourless tulip? the carnation? the auricula? All these have shade and shelter in their blooming season. Why then have we neglected to give it to the rose? simply because fashion has not led the way. We well know how frequently rain and wind destroy nearly all the flowers of our summer roses; how easy, then, would it be to erect a light shed covered with canvass, something like those used to cover tulips, when in bloom. An erection of this kind, thirty to forty or fifty feet long, and from eight to ten feet wide, would admit of a path in the centre, and a border of roses in pots on each side. If the weather should be unfavourable, their flowers would expand in perfection, unscathed by those summer storms of wind and rain, peculiar to our climate, so fatal to flowers, and, above all, to roses: and if, on the contrary, we have "real merry days of June," with a glowing and unclouded sun, how agreeable would be the shade of the "rosarium," how beautiful the tints of the flowers thus shaded, and how delightful their perfume! If the weather is warm and dry, roses placed in a temporary erection of this kind should be carefully, but not too abundantly, watered every evening, and, what is better than saturating the pots with water, the central path should be sprinkled two or three times a-day, and water poured on the ground between the pots.