observations on the cultivation of roses in pots. 289 



" Aptitude of Roses for Pot Culture. 



" It appears somewhat remarkable that the idea of growing Roses 

 in pots should not have been earlier adopted. A more magnificent 

 genus of plants, possessed of such a combination of rare qualities, 

 scarcely to be met with in any other, and one with regard to which 

 the cultivator has so great a scope to exercise his skill and taste, could 

 not be desired. If a continual succession of flowers be an estimable 

 character of plants intended to be grown in pots, the Rose has a 

 decided claim to our attention. If variety of colour (from white to 

 yellow, red, or purple, with various intermediate shades,) be sought 

 for, it is found here. If scent be valued, the Provence, Perpetual 

 Tea-scented, and other classes, establish a claim on this point also. 

 Their foliage, too, and general appearance is elegant; and, in fine, 

 from the flexible nature of the young shoots, thev admit of beina; 

 fashioned into any form the fancy of the cultivator may suggest. 



" Duration of Bloom. — An argument that has been advanced to 

 prove Roses are not well suited for growing in pots, and can never 

 become first-rate exhibition plants, is that the flowers foil so soon 

 after expanding. This must be in part allowed ; but it must also be 

 remembered that this is not the case with all varieties, and the au- 

 tumnals are almost continually in bloom; for, as the first flowers 

 drop away, others open around them ; and many kinds may thus be 

 kept in bloom, out of doors, from May till November; and, if we 

 include in-door culture, by forcing in winter and protecting in autumn, 

 we may have Roses in bloom nearly the whole year round. But it 

 may appear that this continual flowering of the autunmals will even- 

 tually exhaust the plants, and cause the flowers produced late in the 

 season to be poor and thin; but these, though often smaller than the 

 early ones, are frequently the finest formed ; and, by watering the 

 plants occasionally with liquid manure, the disparity will be but 

 trifling. 



" Advantages of growing the tender kinds in Pots. — There are 

 many advantages, when plants are grown in pots, of which we are 

 not able to avail ourselves when they are growing in the open ground. 

 With regard to the tender varieties of Roses, these are very great, if 

 we only take into consideration the facilities afforded of protecting 

 them from frost and heavy rains, by means of pits; and it is not sur- 



