1877.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



41 



floribunda and multillora, Chinese Primrose, 

 Tradescantias, Santolina incana, Artemisia 

 stellaris, Torenia Asiatics, Lophospermum scan- 

 dens. This last is one of the oldest plants we 



have under culture, remarkably easy to take 

 care of, usually very free from insects, and is in 

 flower almost at any time, when growing, 

 throughout the year. Yet it is very seldom 

 seen. In the hope of making it more popular, 

 we give a representation of it. 



POT DRAINAGE. 



Probably experience has long since satisfied 

 most of your readers in regard to this question 

 which has again been raised in the Monthly. It 

 cannot be said that all pots must be drained, 

 though the rule to do so is correct. In many 

 florists' establishments where such plants as 

 Verbenas and Geraniums are grown largely, the 

 pots are not drained, as the growth is rapid from 

 from cuttings to plants, and the pots will often 

 fill with roots in a few weeks. If such pots were 

 drained, the benefits though still attained, would 

 perhiips be unperceived in such a short time. 

 But what plants like, is to have the water 

 drain off" as quickly as possible, and this is what 

 the crocks in pots are for. Quick drainage is an 

 essential in plant culture. In the Spring or 

 Summer time when the sun is hot, plants in 

 small pots will take up the water in the soil very 

 quickly, and at such times the crocking may be 

 omitted. But in regard to collections of plants, 

 no worse system could be adopted. So liable 

 are such plants as Camellias and Oranges to be 

 injured by under drainage, that at all times they 

 require care to keep them healthy. There is 

 positive injury to plants whenever water cannot 



freely pass away. Drainage enables us to water 

 with less discrimination, which is quite an object 

 wheie many thousands have to be done. With 

 pot-drainage our plants are healthier and safer, 

 under ordinary circumstances, just as the farmer's 

 crops are when he drains his land on which water 

 is apt to lie. 



[Sound doctrine. — Ed. G. M.] 



"FORCING TENDER ROSES." 



BY BENJAMIN GREY, DEDHAM, MA5S. 



Under the above heading your corres- 

 pondent, "W. J.," in the December number 

 of the Gardener's Monthly, criticises an article 

 which I had in the August number of that 

 magazine ; and without wishing to occupy too 

 much space, I should like to take exception to 

 some of his remarks. 



He seems to think that Roses would be grown 

 not forced, by the method given ; but well-grown 

 Roses may be forced at pleasure ; and the method, 

 which he is pleased to call my method, is also 

 that of several of the best growers of first-class 

 Roses around Boston and New York — this I 

 know from personal observation. 



The days being short in December, it requires 

 double the time to make a given amount of 

 growth that it does in Spring, and the "commer- 

 cial men " who wait until a week before Christ- 

 mas, to produce their Christmas Roses, will 

 surely have " troubled faces," and I find that 

 their facial contortions usually result from a 

 knowledge of the fact that they will have to burn 

 more coal. The wood intended to produce the 

 Christmas crop should be grown in October and 

 November, when a house placed in almost any 

 position would get sun enough, and the buds 

 should be set on the bushes by the fore part of 

 December; the application of a little extra fuel 

 would then make success reasonably certain, and 

 give a fine crop of well colored buds. 



It is well known that the Safrano, which is the 

 variety most extensively grown for market, 

 delights in a temperature of 50 to 55°, rather 

 than one much higher; and that the Bon Silene, 

 wnich comes next, loses much of its deep color 

 under the hot sun of the advancing season, and 

 it then becomes questionable whether a house 

 built at "an angle of 55° or more," to catch the 

 sun rays when there are no sun rays to catch, 

 and which, construct it as you will must be high 

 and contain much space difficult to heat, is an 

 advantage after all. I would recommend 40 or 



