186 FORCING OF ROSES. 



DIRECTIONS FOR FORCING ROSES. 



Very few j^ears ago forced roses were one of the 

 luxuries of gardening, and the matter was looked 

 upon as a difficult operation, in which accom- 

 plished gardeners only were successful; but with 

 modern varieties the difficulty has vanished, and 

 everyone may have roses at least in February, 

 with the most simple means. 



A pit 10 or 12 feet long and 8 feet wide, just 

 high enough to stand upright in, with a door at 

 one end, and a sunken path in the centre, a raised 

 bed on each side of the path, and an 18-inch 

 brick Arnott's stove at the farthest end, opposite 

 to the door, with a pipe leading into a small brick 

 chimney outside (a chimney is indispensable), will 

 give great abundance of forced roses from Febru- 

 ary to the end of May. To ensure this, a supply 

 must be kept ready ; so that, say twenty, may be 

 placed in the forcing pit about the middle of 

 December, a like number in the middle of Janu- 

 ary, and the same about the middle of February : 

 they must not be pruned till taken into the house, 

 when each shoot should be cut back to two or 

 three buds or eyes, the latter for the strong shoots. 

 The fire should be lighted at seven in the morn- 

 ing, and suffered to burn out about the same hour 

 in the evening, unless in frosty weather, when it 

 must be kept ])urning till late at night, so as to 



