THE PROVENCE, OR CABBAGE ROSE. l7 



three bads ; one-half of such plants I took into the forcing-house 

 about the middle of December, and the other in the first week of 

 January. The lot I procured unpruned I cut them into three buds 

 at that time, and took them in for forcing at the end of January and 

 the middle of February. I had them plunged in a pit of tanners' 

 bark and dry leaves up to the rims ; the house is heated around, being 

 double-roofed, by hot-water pipes, having pot tanks placed along the 

 upper side of the pipes, which are filled with water, to evaporate and 

 induce a moist atmosphere at pleasure. 1 used manure water once 

 u-week at the roots, in a milk-warm state, and soft water of a similar 

 degree of temperature on all other occasions. I gave them a syringing 

 of water over the tops once a-day, in the morning, and as the season 

 advanced in the evening also. When any appearance of green-fly 

 was seen, immediate application of tobacco-water was applied, and 

 destruction followed. By due attention, having the plants forced in 

 as gradual a manner as circumstances would admit, I cut from nearly 

 every plant from one and a-half to two dozen roses. The first were 

 gathered early in February, and I had an ample supply till the end of 

 April. 



As the ])lants ceased blooming I had them removed into a warm 

 greenhouse, so that they gradually hardened; and about the middle 

 of May I turned them into the open air, up to the rim in a bed of 

 rich soil, in a good situation, where they were watered, &c., as neces- 

 sity directed, avoiding starting the plants into a second growth, as if 

 allowed would most materially injure such plants for forcing. When 

 I apprehend a premature disposition to blooming, I remove the i)lants, 

 and plunge them behind a wall or thick beech hedge (this tendency 

 sometimes appears in September), which check answers the purpose 

 designed. When the plants had hardened their shoots, having com- 

 pleted their growth, I repotted them into pots a size larger, using a 

 rich leaf soil and loam, of equal parts, and placed them in the border 

 as before. I pruned them, and forced them the second season very 

 successfully. I should have given them a year's rest, by pinching off 

 all flowers, and improving the wood for forcing the year after ; but 

 I had not a stock of younger plants duly prepared to supply me with 

 Roses, and thus necessity induced me ; otherwise I should have done 

 as I since have — allowed one year's rest and the alternate year forced 

 them. 



To cultivate Roses for forcing successfully, it is necessary to pre- 

 pare them from the earliest stage ; it will not do to take up a plant 

 out of the ground, compress the roots into a pot, and then to bring it 

 forward by immediate steps into a course of growth adapted to the 

 object in vievv. The plant must be grown from its infancy in a pot. 

 Sensible that such a course was the only real one, at the time I pur- 

 chased the two hundred plants, which 1 forced as above stated, I 

 procured three hundred layers, which had been laid in the previous 

 spring ; these I pruned to three eyes, and potted them in a rich 

 compost in .32-sized pots, plunged them over the rims in a good warm 

 border, watered them, and in a few days laid over the surface six 

 inches thick of dry leaves, upon which I sprinkled a little spent bark 



Vol. XV. No. 1 .—N. S B 



