444 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



retain its original color and form. She made cupboards of dry-goods boxes for 

 fruit cans, to keep in the cellar, and these were kept closed. In the absence 

 of the dark closets, she wrapped each can in several thicknesses of dark cloth 

 or paper. • 



FLO WEES 



COMMERCIAL PLANT CTLTURE. 



Roses forWinter. — A rose grower in the Germantown Telegraph gives some 

 practical hints with regard to forcing roses that are worth saving. 



To begin with propagation; strong, healthy cuttings should be put in any 

 time from September to January, in good bar sand, over a temperature of 60° 

 or 65°, with the temperature of the house 10° less. It will take from 20 to 25 

 days to root them. 



They are then potted off in two and one-half inch pots in three parts good, 

 rotten sod and one of sand, and then placed in a temperature of about 50° by 

 night with 10° to 15° more in the day time. They should be regularly shifted 

 into larger pots as they become filled with roots, or pot-bound. This is an 

 important matter and should have prompt attention, as if they once get a 

 check in their growth at this early stage it will take them a long while to 

 recover. 



Syringing is done once a day to keep down the red spider. Fumigate, by 

 burning tobacco stems twice a week, to keep down aphis or green fly. With 

 this attention plants which were put in as cuttings at the season named above 

 ought to be two feet high by July, with roots enough to fill a six-inch pot ; if 

 intended to be grown on continuously in pots a shift into an eight-inch pot 

 will be required by the first of October to flower them in ; if intended to be 

 planted out on benches or solid beds of soil, this should be done about the 

 middle of August. 



Some people go to a good deal of trouble making prepared beds for them, 

 but I consider this all unnecessary and labor in vain. I have seen quite as good 

 roses grown in a bed made of the natural soil, especially if the ground is rather 

 stiff, which seems to suit them. The beds should be dug about 15 inches deep, 

 with four or five iuches of good rotten cow dung turned in, and during their 

 active season of growth they were mulched with three or four inches of the 

 same material. 



Roses, when grown under glass, are sometimes attacked with mildew. To 

 prevent this the hot-water pipes should be painted with a mixture of sulphur 

 and lime made of the consistency of whitewash; the lime is merely to make 

 the sulphur stick. This will be required about every three weeks. 



Watering is a matter of the first importance and requires some experience 

 to know what is the proper condition. Whenever the soil shows indications 

 of being dry on top, a thorough watering should be given — enough to com- 



