THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 32-5 



leaving the dealer to select the sorts, will be sure to result satis- 

 factorily, and the cost of the whole would be about half what would 

 be charged if the sorts and the trees were selected by the purchaser. 

 I made a plantation like my own for a friend, and I went about it 

 in a most off-hand way. I wrote to Messrs. Lane and Son for so 

 many dozen staudards, ranging from three to seven feet, and I said 

 nothing about the numbers required of particular heights or sorts. 

 When they came in, I set the men to work in a systematic way. One 

 pruned head and tail, and handed them over ; the next placed them 

 in lots as to heights ; the next carried them to their places, and 

 laid them in bundles for planting. To have a plantation of roses as 

 true to heights as an architect would require the columns of a 

 portico, is out of the question — it simply cannot be done; but there 

 is no difficulty in arranging them to form a very regular bank, if a 

 fair proportion of each height is supplied in the first instance. 



The work of planting should be done with care. Fellows who 

 blunder about, and hack and slash with spade and knife ought not 

 to be admitted amongst roses. They must be handled as old Izaak 

 Walton advises the angler to handle frogs — that is, tenderly, yet 

 boldly. All the long roots must be cut back ; all the wounded 

 roots must be shortened, so as to remove the injured parts ; there 

 must be no tugging and tearing, and care must be taken not to 

 bruise the bark. In cutting back the heads, it must be remembered 

 that the final pruning is to be done after they are replanted ; the 

 cutting back before planting is to render them more convenient for 

 handling, for the nurserymen send them in with all their huge 

 whip-like shoots full length ; it would not do for them to prune 

 them ; they would not look worth their money, to say nothing of 

 the time it would consume. 



In planting, the ground should be measured off in lines, and it 

 is best to begin with the tallest. If these average 6 feet high, they 

 must be 5 feet apart in the row, or not more than five-and-twenty 

 in a run of 100 feet. The next row should be 5 feet removed 

 from the first, and the trees in it should average 4^ feet high, and 

 be put 4 feet asunder. The next row should be 4 feet from the 

 second, and the trees in it should average 3 feet high, and be 3 feet 

 apart in the row. If they are strong-growing 3orts, and the soil is 

 good, and the trees have already fine heads, give them a distance of 

 4 feet apart, and they will then touch each other, and make a solid 

 line of leaf and bloom. The front row should be 3 feet from the 

 last, and the bushes in it 2 feet apart, and set back 2 feet from the 

 edge of the walk. The quickest way to plant is to lay down the 

 line, place the trees, carefully laying out the roots near the surface, 

 throw a little earth over, and tread very lightly, just enough to keep 

 them upright, and so on till the whole are in their places. Then go 

 over them again, tread them firm, and stake them securely, and they 

 may remain for mouths, if need be, without any further attention. 

 The reason I always plant them loose in the first instance is this, 

 that when the whole piece is planted, I am sure to want to move a 

 few, and make a few exchanges. I can, therefore, take out any of 

 them by a mere touch, rearrange as needful, and there is no waste 



