X Roses under glass 177 



A commencement should be made with plants jxir- 

 chased in pots and specially prepared for forcing, for 

 without the education of an autumnal rest they will not 

 break and grow strongly in mid-winter. Several firms 

 make a specialty of this branch of the business. The 

 plants used generally to be grown on their own roots, 

 but H.P.s on the manetti and Teas on the briar is now 

 the usual practice. If the pots have holes at the bottom 

 of the sides it will facilitate giving liquid manure 

 when necessary by plunging, but the embedding them 

 in the h^use pretty deeply in cocoa fibre or some similar 

 material is not now generally recommended. 



The plants should be pruned rather closely to 

 well-ripened outlooking buds, and the first year, while 

 they are young, only a few shoots well apart from each 

 other should be allowed to grow. It is most important 

 that there should not be too much heat at first, and 

 that it should very gradually rise with the increase of 

 light. Even when the buds are well formed and soon 

 about to open, the artificial temperature should not 

 exceed 75° by day and 50° at night. A further slight 

 rise from sun heat will do no harm, nor a small decrease 

 when the weather outside is very dull and cold. 



Next to temperature, the most important point is 

 moisture. The aim should be to keep the plants and 

 atmosphere sufficiently damp by syringing and wetting 

 of exposed surfaces in bright weather to avoid red spider 

 and thrips, and yet not so damp as to bring on mildew ; 

 two syringings a day may be taken as a general rule, 

 three in dry hot sunshine as the season advances, and in 

 very dull damp weather only one. Some fresh air is 

 most desirable ; if the weather be at all mild, the top 

 ventilators may be opened a little, but not on the wind- 

 ward side and only for a short time — mind they 



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