XIV CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS 323 



ground is sticky. Unpack the purchased Roses carefully, 

 and lay them tenderly in the ground when they cannot 

 be planted at once. Be careful in each detail of planting, 

 for much depends upon it. Stocks of all sorts should 

 now be planted also if possible, but there will not be 

 much time yet for getting standards from the hedges. 

 Where seed is saved it should now be gathered. All 

 wild growth is now to be cut away from budded stocks, 

 leaving one or two buds on those laterals of the 

 standards which have been successfully operated on. 

 Roses in pots should be brought into cool shelter before 

 severe weather. In northern districts it may be well to 

 place the winter protection round the Teas before the 

 month is out. 



December. — In most English counties it will suffice 

 to apply the winter protection during the first fortnight 

 of this month, but dead leaves should have been col- 

 lected by the end of the first week in November, and 

 bracken should have been cut and set ready, in sheaves 

 not in heaps, as soon as it began to change colour. It 

 is perhaps best to commence the protection as soon as 

 the Rose planting is finished, even though the setting 

 out of stocks has to be postponed. They will do nearly 

 as well if planted at any dry time during the winter, 

 but a severe early frost coming before the bed-clothes 

 are on the tender Teas may cause much lamentation. 

 Now is the time, on dull damp days, to sally forth with 

 the little stock axe and the Grecian saw in quest of 

 standard stocks. If no winter mulch is applied to the 

 Rose beds, the surface should still be kept stirred and 

 loose. Roses for the earliest forcing may be pruned and 

 started at the end of the month, and grafting under 

 glass may be commenced about Christmas time. 



January. — This is the best month for grafting in heat, 



Y 2 



