PLANTING ROSES 95 



separated, the plants should be "heeled in" ; that is to 

 say, a shallow trench should be made in the kitchen 

 garden or other convenient spot, and the roots of 

 the new Rose plants be placed in it, and afterwards 

 watered and completely covered with soil. When 

 heeling the plants in, it will be advisable to place them 

 in the trench in the order in which they are to be 

 afterwards arranged in the beds, so that the required 

 varieties may be readily removed from the trench as 

 they are wanted without disturbing the rest. If the 

 weather be frosty at the time the plants arrive, it will 

 be well not to unpack them at all, but to leave them 

 in their straw bundles until the weather changes and 

 they can be properly heeled in. If for any reason the 

 package be unduly delayed in transit and the bark on 

 the shoots presents a shrivelled appearance, a deeper 

 trench should be dug, and the plants, branches and 

 all, placed lengthways in it and completely buried. 

 When removed from the trench in three days' time the 

 shoots will be found to have recovered their freshness. 

 The Actual Planting. — This can be undertaken at any 

 time between the beginning of November and the 

 end of March, but the best time of all is early in 

 November. Should the ground be sodden or frozen 

 when the Roses arrive, the planting must be deferred 

 until in the one case the superfluous moisture has 

 passed into the subsoil, and in the other until the 

 frost is quite out of the ground. In order to prevent 

 the exposure of the roots to sunshine or drying winds 

 it will be a good plan to take only a few plants at a time 

 from the place where they have been heeled in and 



