i869.] 



THE ROSE. 

 12 Roses. 



387 



Your beautiful tlioroughbreds may not all come to the post, they 

 may not run in the order in which you have placed them — that is, some 

 of your Roses may be too much expanded when you come to cut them, 

 or may not be in size or in colour exactly suitable for the position 

 assigned to them; but you will find, notwithstanding, very great assist- 

 ance from such a plan as that proposed to you ; and when you have 

 gained by observation a knowledge of the development and duration of 

 your Roses, you will meet with few disappointments in its realisation. 



On the eve of the show you must have all your boxes surfaced with 

 Moss, and sprinkled, set out upon trestles, 3 feet from the ground, in 

 some sheltered corner or garden-shed ; your zinc tubes, in rows upon 

 their miniature bottle-rack, cheaply made, and having a strong resem- 

 blance to the stands on which Boots deposes our fat portmanteau, 

 heaving a thankful sigh ; and upon a small table your box, containing 

 plans of arrangement, cards with names of Roses written upon them, 

 sticks to hold them, a pair of sharp pruning-scissors with which to cut 

 your flowers, a pair of small finely-pointed ditto, with which you may 

 sometimes remove the decayed edge from a petal, and a piece of narrow 

 ivory rounded at the end, such as ladies use for a knitting-mesh, and 

 which, very carefully and delicately handled, may help you now and 

 then to assist the opening Rose, or to reduce irregularities of growth 

 to a more natural, and therefore graceful, combination ; add a small 

 hamper of additional Moss, and the dressing-room is ready for the 

 royal toilet. 



WJien should we cut our Roses? The nurseryman who exhibits 

 144 Roses in one collection — that is, 3 specimens of 48 varieties — and 

 sometimes simultaneously a collection of 72 distinct blooms, conveying 

 them great distances, is obliged to cut on the day preceding the shows, 

 and having acres of young trees to select from, can generally find Roses 

 of such calibre as will insure to him a continuance of perfect beauty 

 for the next four-and- twenty hours ; but I strongly advise the amateur, 

 who has no such wealth of material, and must make the most of his 

 limited means, to cut his Roses, whenever he has the option, upon the 



