250 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



development and duration of your Roses, you will meet 

 with few disappointments in its realisation. 



On the eve of the show you must have all your boxes, 

 surfaced with moss and sprinkled, set out upon trestles, 3 

 feet from the ground, in some sheltered corner or garden- 

 shed ; your zinc tubes, in rows upon their miniature bottle- 

 rack, cheaply made, and having a strong resemblance to the 

 stands on which Boots deposits our fat portmanteau, heav- 

 ing a thankful sigh ; and upon a small table your box, 

 containing plans of arrangement, cards with names of Roses 

 written upon them, sticks to hold them, a pair of sharp 

 pruning scissors with which to cut your flowers, a pair of 

 small finely-pointed ditto, with which you may sometimes 

 remove the decayed edge from a petal, and a piece of 

 narrow ivory rounded at the end, such as ladies use for a 

 knitting- mesh, and which, very carefully and delicately 

 handled, may help you now and then to assist the opening 

 Rose, or to reduce irregularities of growth to a more 

 natural, and therefore graceful, combination ; add a small 

 hamper of additional moss, and the dressing-room is ready 

 for the royal toilet. 



When should we cut our Roses } The nurseryman who 

 exhibits 144 Roses in one collection — that is, 3 specimens 



