1870.] ROSES ON THEIR OWN ROOTS. 499 



forced in pots ; in May from walls ; and from that time till the autumn 

 has begun to strip the trees of their emerald tresses, the blooms come 

 from various sources — some from plants budded on the Brier, some 

 on the Manetti stock, and others from plants on their own roots. 

 To obtain a good supply of Roses, three classes are principally grown — 

 namely, Noisettes, which are mostly grown on walls, and protected with 

 branches of evergreens during winter; Tea-Roses, which are grown 

 and protected the same way as the Noisettes — both of which I find to 

 bloom earlier and finer from the protection they get, as the blooming 

 wood is preserved intact, instead of being killed back, as is frequently 

 the case ; and the Perpetuals, which form the largest class grown here. 

 A great many of these are on their own roots, and these I obtain in a 

 very simple manner. I first trench a piece of ground in the kitchen- 

 garden, two spits deep, and mix plenty of rotten dung with the soil as 

 the work proceeds. The cuttings I prepare in the following manner : 

 I select the strongest growers of the Perpetual class, and cut up the 

 wood into lengths of about 6 inches, and take out all the eyes but the 

 three top ones. The ground should be trodden firm at planting time, 

 and I always select for this a day dry enough to prevent the soil 

 sticking to one's feet. A line is put across the ground, and the soil 

 chopped away from the line by the spade just deep enough to take the 

 cuttings, leaving the eyes out of the ground ; they are placed from 4 

 to 6 inches apart, and the soil trodden firmly about them. And so I 

 plant a piece of ground, leaving a space between the rows of fully 2 

 feet. I find the cuttings strike more readily in a sandy soil, and gen- 

 erally place some road-grit about them previously to treading the earth 

 firmly against them. Here the cuttings remain for two years. At the 

 end of the first year the growth of that season is cut back to about four 

 or six buds from the ground, and by the end of the second year they 

 form fine healthy plants. 



These I use for the formation of Rose-hedges, the front row of a 

 Rose-border, for potting, for forcing purposes, or to form a bed of 

 Roses on their own roots. The ten varieties of Perpetuals now to be 

 named are very fine plants from cuttings struck this way three years 

 ago, and they are all strong growers and constant bloomers — viz., 

 General Jacqueminot, John Hopper, Jules Margottin, Anna Alexieft", 

 Duchesse d' Orleans, Auguste Mie, Anna des Diesbach, Charles Lefeb- 

 vre, Mademoiselle Louise Carigue, and Madame Alfred de Rougemont. 



There are two hardy Tea-Scented Roses growing with the above 

 that stood the severe frost of last winter without any protection — 

 namely Gloire de Dijon, and L'Enfant Trouve, a beautiful yellow 

 flowering kind. 



If I were to form a Rose-hedge of one particular flower, it would 



