178 REMARKS ON CULTURE OF ROSES IN TOTS. 



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would require some artificial support to their branches, the exact 

 nature of which will, however, he best left to the taste and judgment 

 of the cultivator. The most important point to be regarded (if one 

 important and indispensable requisite can be said to be more im- 

 portant than another) is to maintain a pure atmosphere in conjunc- 

 tion with the increased temperature, without submitting the plants to 

 the influx of large bodies of raw cold air ; and another point which 

 claims especial attention, is to afford the plants some kind of shading 

 when in bloom, with a view to prevent the blossoms from falling so 

 rapidly as they otherwise would do. 



By following this course of treatment the cultivator might expect 

 to be rewarded by the healthy appearance and abundant blooming 

 of his plants. I say he might expect this, because it is the course of 

 treatment which experience teaches us is most likely to result thus ; 

 but as of all other professions horticulture is the most uncertain as to 

 its results, so in this individual instance some inaccuracy in the 

 adaptation of the means to the circumstances of the case may cause a 

 failure which can scarely be said to inculpate the operator. I should 

 recommend a similar mode of treatment also to those kinds included 

 in §§ 1, 3, 5, and 6. 



China Roses are much more likely to become generally cultivated 

 in pots than those we have been considering, on account of their 

 greater degree of tractability, and the profusion and succession in 

 which they produce their blossoms ; unlike the last, their habit will 

 admit of their being grown into compact and permanent bushes of 

 considerable size; and when such is the case, if they are at all in a 

 healthy state, an abundance of bloom will be an accompanying cha- 

 racteristic of the group. 



If grown on their own roots, it is preferable to raise them from 

 cuttings rather than from layers, as by this means, in consequence of 

 a more equal balance between the roots and the branches, a more 

 regularly progressive development is the result. The soil in which 

 they thrive most freely is a mixture of turfy loam and peat ; indeed, 

 when in a young state, I have known them to succeed best in a com- 

 post of turfy peat with only a small portion of sand intermixed. They 

 require to be kept close in a slightly raised temperature when quite 

 young, in order to induce them to make a free growth ; without this 

 attention, especially if potted early in spring or in the autumn, they 



