CHAPTER X. 



REMARKS ON SUNDRY OPERATIONS IN THE ROSE GARDEN. 



Certain branches of cultivation have been made the subject of separate chapters ; 

 but there are others, important in themselves, yet not of sufficient magnitude to 

 require this : such it is our intention to include in the present chapter. 



Let us run hastily through the year, commencing with the spring. The last 

 operation performed in the Rose Garden has been pruning, and now, forking the 

 beds over requires to be done. 



When Roses are newly planted, they need a little extra attention. They 

 should be mulched and watered occasionally, if the spring or summer prove dry. 

 As care in childhood and early life determines the constitution of the man, so 

 attention at this epoch of a plant's existence establishes a vigorous and healthy 

 subject. Unless it is the intention to supply the plants with manure-water during 

 that part of the growing season which precedes their flowering, now is the time to 

 enrich the soil. If the ground has been prepared the previous autumn, this will 

 be unnecessary, but under all other circumstances it should be done. The manure 

 should be well decayed, and a thick coating laid on the beds previous to forking, 

 that it may be turned in in this operation. An annual forking is indispen- 

 sable ; and if the beds are also hoed with a Vernon hoe three or four times in the 

 course of the summer, as the nature of the soil or the season may require, the 

 plants will be largely benefitted. The latter practice is especially recommended 

 for stiff and adhesive soils. 



Rose-trees require a careful looking over during April and May, to remove 

 the Rose-grub, which, if allowed to pursue its ravages, proves most destructive 

 to the early bloom. Tobacco-smoke, and tobacco-water, seem alike inefficient ; 

 soot-water is evidently disagreeable to them, but they survive it ; and the 

 only effectual remedy I know of, is to search diligently, in the early stages of 

 the young shoots' growth, and draw the vagrants from their flimsy hiding-place. 

 I believe the tom-tit frequently makes a meal off them, but his operations are too 

 irregular to be relied on. The green-fly abounds everywhere ; syringing with 

 tobacco-water, or dusting with snuff and soot when the leaves are damp, that the 

 mixture may adhere thereto, destroys or disperses it. It is also a good practice 



