]42 THE ROSE GARDEN. 



The plants intended for exhibition in June may be plunged out of doors in an 

 airy yet sheltered situation, that the foilage may not be damaged by the wind. 

 So soon as the buds shew colour, remove the plants to a frame or green-house, 

 giving air abundantly night and day, and shading them from the sun. 



The plants intended to bloom in July may also be grown out of doors : they 

 should be autumnals exclusively ; and by stopping the young shoots in April a 

 perfect flowering is secured at that season. It is the practice with some to cut 

 off the flowers of the autumnals shewn in May, removing the plants to a warm 

 frame, by which treatment they flower again in July : this, however, we hesitate 

 to recommend. 



The detail of cultivation has been given in the chapter on Roses in Pots ; it is 

 our province here merely to speak of the management for exhibition. As the 

 plants approach the flowering season, some will be found forwarder than others, 

 owing to their position, or the habit of the variety. It is necessary, then, to calcu- 

 late which are likely to be in perfection on the coming day, when means of accele- 

 rating or retarding must be had recourse to. If the former, a frame with bottom-heat 

 is the best contrivance : if the latter, place them in a cold north frame, admitting air 

 gradually. Care and forethought are especially necessary here. These changes 

 of temperature must be brought about gradually ; and a calm and sunny hour 

 should be chosen to remove the plants from place to place. As well might an 

 inhabitant of India be sent to dwell in the frozen seas, as a plant suddenly trans- 

 muted from a high to a low temperature. When the buds shew colour, any that 

 are in advance of the mass may be plucked out, when the side-buds will rise and 

 produce larger flowers. Have we, then, reached this stage of growth ? A canvas 

 awning must now be raised to shade the flowers. It should not be so thick as to 

 exclude the light : its purpose is merely to break the sun's rays. As our flowers 

 advance, our pleasures and anxieties increase. It is difficult to judge correctly of 

 the time a bud requires to expand : some remain as buds for weeks after they 

 shew colour ; others expand very rapidly. The hard buds, of which we may 

 instance Hybrid Perpetual La Reine, and Chinese Anteros, are slowest in 

 expanding, and remain longest in a shewable state. The less double flowers, as 

 Hybrid Perpetual Madame Laffay, and Tea Safrano, advance more rapidly, 

 and are in general proportionally ephemeral. This is the best guide we can 

 offer to the unpractised eye, though by no means an unerring one. If, after all 

 our care, our specimens are far too early or too late, it is better to allow them 

 their natural course than to resort to violent measures : it is better to shew fine 

 specimens not arrived at, or beyond their glory, than to produce what might be 

 construed as bad cultivation. Roses will not submit to the treatment in this 

 respect which Geraniums and some other plants will endure. 



We have already stated our vieAvs on tying up and training ; but there is some 

 doubt whether that system would tell best on the exhibition tables. There, one 

 side is to the wall, so that at best not more than three quarters of a round plant 



