196 POT-CULTURE. 



plants intended only for exhibition, or to bloom 

 at the usual season without forcing, may be 

 shifted annually towards the end of September, 

 and a portion of earth shaken from their roots ; 

 from 8-inch pots they may be shifted into 9-inch 

 or 16-sized pots; and it will not be ad\dsable to 

 place them in any of the larger-sized pots unless 

 plants are required of extra size, as they become 

 heavy, and difficult to move with safety. 



There appears to me much room for improve- 

 ment in the pot-culture of Summer Roses. Why 

 should they not have shade and shelter ? Are 

 they less worthy than the gaudy, but odourless 

 tulip? the carnation? the auricula? All these 

 have shade and shelter in their blooming season. 

 Why, then, have we neglected to give it to the 

 rose ? simply because fashion has not led the way. 

 We well know how frequently rain and wind 

 destroy nearly all the flowers of our Summer 

 Roses ; how easy, then, would it be to erect a light 

 shed covered with canvas, something like those 

 used to cover tulips when in bloom. An erection 

 of this kind, thirty to forty or fifty feet long, 

 and from eight to ten feet wide, would admit of 

 a path in the centre, and a border of roses in pots 

 on each side. If the weather should be unfavour- 

 able, their flowers would expand in perfection, 

 unscathed by those summer storms of wind and 

 rain, peculiar to our climate, so fatal to flowers, 

 and, above all, to roses : and if, on the contrary, 



