i88t.1 decorative GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 371 



ROSES TO BE SEEI^" TO BEST ADVANTAGE. 



A SOUTH border well trenched and manured is probably the best posi- 

 tion for Roses, and if it has a good slope to the front so much the 

 better. Plant vigorous kinds, beginning at the back with crimsons 

 and darks of any kind, next row to be pinks or light reds, third row 

 scarlets of shades, and front row flesh-coloured and whites, or the 

 whole of these in proportionate numbers, mixed plant for plant. Let 

 them be planted, say, 4 feet apart, placing a quantity of good turfy 

 loam about the roots of each as the work goes on. Mulch well with 

 rotten cow-manure ; and just before the buds begin to open give a 

 soaking of manure-water, and a display of Roses may be had equal 

 to any show of flowers which one can conceive. As to pruning, 

 thin out the weakly shoots, cut the strong ones moderately back. The 

 front of the bed, by pegging, may be 1 or 2 feet high, the second row 

 3 feet, the next 4 feet, and rising a foot or two as taste and position 

 may dictate. Such a bank as we have in view, treated thus, shows 

 Roses to the best advantage. Standard Roses, we are glad to find, 

 have lost much favour during the last three years. Frost, we believe, 

 has had something to do with this change of taste. Boss. 



NOTES ON DECORATIVE GREENHOUSE PLANTS. 



DAPHNE TNDICA. 



The Daphnes are among the most deliciously fragrant of our green- 

 house plants. They are generally pretty strong growers, and when 

 fairly established succeed best if planted out along with Camellias 

 and suchlike ; but they also make very good pot-plants, provided due 

 care is taken in the way of pinching and training them into form 

 when young ; otherwise, if left to themselves, they grow rather bare 

 and straggly. They come into flower naturally in the winter season, 

 which gives them an additional claim to our attention. Though some 

 of the varieties are all but hardy, and all of them thrive well in an 

 ordinary greenhouse temperature, yet while they are in a young state 

 they are the better of being grown in a somewhat higher tempera- 

 ture than that of the greenhouse, say from 55° to 60°. They are not 

 of very rapid growth when young; but by keeping them somewhat 

 warm, they will of course grow into plants of a useful size so much 

 the sooner. They are always much prized on account of their sweet 

 perfume, a small plant when in flower being sufficient to fill a room 

 with its sweet fragrance. 



Daphnes can be raised from seed, but as the seed requires about 

 two years to vegetate, this plan is not often adopted ; the more 



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