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CHRISTMAS ROSES. 



Evert cultivator of the rose is well acquainted 

 with the difficulty of having roses in bloom in 

 the ' dark and dreary ' month of December. I 

 feel, therefore, much pleasure in giving the result 

 of some experiments ending in perfect success; so 

 that, in future, a bouquet of roses on Christmas- 

 day may grace the festive board in company with 

 the holly, rivalling in brilliancy the colour of its 

 berries. 



The Bourboi^Rose, Grioire de Rosomene, is 

 now well-known by every lover of this favourite 

 flower as a most brilliant and beautiful variety ; 

 but, like many other roses remarkable for the 

 brilliancy of their tints, its flowers are deficient in 

 fulness ; in fact, they are merely semi-double, 

 and, like all roses of this description, they fade 

 very quickly in hot weather : it is only in the 

 cool cloudy days of autumn, when their flowers 

 never fully expand, that they are seen to perfec- 

 tion. This quality induced me to turn my atten- 

 tion to this variety, as well calculated to give a 

 crop of very late autumnal or winter flowers. 



Nothing can be more simple than their manage- 

 ment. Towards the end of May, young plants 

 from small pots should be shifted into 6-inch 

 pots, in a good compost of two-thirds loam and 

 one-third rotten manure or decayed leaves, and 



