MONTHLY CALENDAR. 213 



nature and constitution of the various plants, and will therefore bring them to^ 

 the highest perfection, it would be an additional pleasure to every cultivator 

 to understand the principles to which he owed his success. It would be almost 

 impossible to over-estimate the moral benefit to be derived from such studies, 

 for the mysterious developments and marvellous adaptations of vegetable life 

 are specially calculated to fill the mind with love and gratitude to Him who 

 has condescended to be known as the " Eose of Sharon and the Lily of the 

 Valley." 



553. Rose-garden. — November is the best month in the whole year for 

 planting all hardy roses. I therefore prefer giving a full monograph of their 

 culture at that period. Presuming, however, that some readers may wish 

 to plant roses now, I will give a few hints and a list of some of the best 

 varieties for their guidance. For nearly all roses, the soil can scarcely be too 

 rich. They delight in a stiff loam, liberally incorporated with manure ; no 

 excellences of variety, climate, or culture, can compensate for the absence of 

 this indispensable desideratum. In choosing standard roses, see that the 

 stems are healthy, of a brownish colour, and proportioned in size and strength 

 to the head they have to support. The junction of the bud with the stock 

 should be carefully examined, to see that the union is complete and strong, 

 and the wound healed. Unless for special purposes, never choose a standard 

 more than three feet in height ; generally, the taller the stems are the more 

 unsightly the trees appear, and the greater the chance of their dying. No 

 taste can well be more grotesque, inconvenient, and barbarous, than working 

 roses on poles from 5 to 8 feet high. The only exceptions are Noisette and 

 other climbing or drooping roses, trained down on umbrella-trellises, or as 

 pyramids. It has also been suggested, that by careful and patient training, roses 

 might be grown to the size and form of the weeping ash, having the branches 

 produced from the top of a single stem, and drooping downwards. Tall trees 

 in this form would have an elegant and graceful appearance. Half-standards 

 of other varieties, from 18 inches to 2 feet high, are perhaps the most effective. 

 For massing and grouping in beds, nothing answers so well as dwarfs. Dwarf 

 roses also continue for a longer period in health than any other form ; and,, 

 although they have not been so fashionable of late years, I still think a rose- 

 garden of dwarfs as beautiful and interesting as one filled with standards. 

 For the sake of variety, it is best to introduce both. From 2 to 6 feet will be 

 proper distances to place roses apart ; the lesser distance for weak growers, 

 and the greater for the very strongest. About a yard apart will be a good 

 distance for most of the perpetuals : these distances apply to roses planted on 

 beds. Where single plants are inserted in rows, on the turf by the sides of 

 walks, they should never be nearer together than from 9 to 12 feet ; their 

 distance firom the gravel may range from 4 to 8 feet. Of all the varieties of 

 the rose, the hybrid perpetuals are the most useful ; they equal the best 

 summer roses in size, colour, consistence, and perfume, and possess tha 

 additional charm of furnishing a succession of bloom. The following are first* 

 rate hybrid pernetual roses • — • 



