56 THE ROSE GARDEN. 



The Tea-scented, Chinese, tender varieties of Noisette, and Lawrenceana 

 Roses, should never be planted in the autumn. Let the beds or places which they 

 are intended to fill remain open till spring. The plants of these groups are some- 

 times small and delicate, and if put into the ground in autumn they often suffer 

 fearfully from the winter's frost. But plant them in spring ; if they are a year 

 old, in March ; if younger, in May or June ; and they have the growing season 

 before them : they get a firm hold of the ground by winter, and are more gra- 

 dually hardened to, and better capable of supporting, the changes and severities of 

 that season. 



It is important that the ground be in good working order at the time of 

 planting, for on this depends greatly the measure of success. If it be wet, it 

 hangs to the spade and to the heels of the operator, and prevents him from doing 

 the work well. But worse than this : the moving of ground when wet causes 

 the particles to combine more intimately : it becomes close and dead, and, if 

 thrown about the roots of a tree in this state, acts most prejudicially. Choose, 

 then, a dry time, when the earth bounds clean and free from the spade; and if 

 subsequent dry weather points out the necessity of using the watering pot, by all 

 means do so : far better this, than to plant when the ground is in bad order. 



