302 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
roses should be obtained on the stock best adapted to the soil in 
which they are to be planted. 
As the best results are insured by early planting, the nurseries 
ought to be visited, and the selection purchased, as early in October as 
possible, and arrangements be made to have the trees delivered and 
planted by the end of the month. When the planting is left until the 
middle of the winter the trees are not placed under conditions so 
favourable to their becoming established quickly as those planted 
earlier. February and March are by many amateurs considered 
suitable months in which to plant roses, but this is a mistake. In 
the first place, those who buy in the spring have to take the trees 
left by more experienced cultivators, and also run the risk of having 
to put up with a proportion of second-rate varieties, because of the 
stocks of many of the first-class kinds being exhausted. In the 
second place, trees planted in these months do not, under the most 
favourable circumstances, produce a satisfactory display of bloom 
the following season. 
As far as practicable the stations should be marked out and the 
soil be prepared previous to the trees being received from the 
nursery, so that they may not have to remain out of the ground a 
day longer than is necessary. 
The preparation of the soil consists in the application of a good 
dressing of manure, and then trenching the soil over to a depth of 
about two feet. When the trees have to be planted at some little 
distance apart, the stations should be marked, a circle drawn from 
thirty inches to three feet in diameter, and after a layer of manure 
from four to six inches in thickness has been spread over the sur- 
face, the soil must be dug over tothe depth mentioned above. Few 
flowering plants pay so well for generous treatment in the way of 
manuring and deep digging as these, and some amount of disap- 
pointment may perhaps be prevented if it is here stated that it is 
quite useless to expect the trees to grow vigorously, and produce really 
first-class flowers, in exhausted soils that have simply had the surface 
scratched over. As «# rule, all rose-trees should be planted about 
an inch deeper than they were before, as indicated by the mark on 
the stem, and in every case the roots must be carefully spread out, 
and a portion of the friable soil from the surface put immediately 
over them. Roots that have been injured in the process of removal 
should be shortened sufficiently to remove the damaged portion, 
because, if this is allowed to remain, the chances are that it will 
deeay, and the entire root be lost. The soil must be trodden firmly, 
and standards and half-standards should have stakes put to them at 
once, to prevent. their being loosened by the wind. It is difficult 
to give any advice in reference to the distance at which they should 
be apart, because so much depeuds upon the position in which they 
are required. But it may be said, that when planted in beds by 
themselves, they may be put from thirty to thirty-six inches apart 
each way. Ina few years they will form a sufficiently dense mass 
of flowers and foliage, and during the first two or three years the 
surface can be carpeted with hardy annuals or zonal pelargoniums, 
and other of the showy summer bedders. 
