116 PRACTICAL GARDENING. 



evils — " nip tliem in the bud." In a quantity of roses budded 

 upon common briers, a man may every third day be employed 

 rubbing off the buds of the stock where it is going to shoot ; 

 and if they are neglected a week, the shoots from the stock 

 will sometimes be a foot long. 



To return to our border, which has become a mere thicket 

 of aboriginal trees and shrubs of no value, the first thing that 

 suggests itself is to clear away a little, and get everythiag to 

 some shape, or remove it ; and let the first job be to graft all 

 the worthless stocks with good sorts of what they have lost. 

 Except here and there a handsome green holly, which may be 

 left, graft all the others with variegated kinds. So with the 

 rhododendrons and azaleas, unless you choose to spare any 

 that have grown into handsome form, let everything be 

 worked over again with the sorts most desirable ; and as the 

 stock will make greater efforts than ever to regain the mas- 

 tery, they must all be constantly watched, and every bud that 

 appears on the stock portion of the plant must be rubbed off 

 as fast as it comes. By these means, you will in a season or 

 two restore some of the best things ; because the stock being 

 exceedingly vigorous, through being cut back, the newly 

 worked sorts will grow rapidly, and make quite a show in a 

 couple of seasons. The height at which all the stocks should 

 be worked depends on what you want them for : you may 

 make standards of any height you like, or cut them down low 

 enough to make a bush; but, generally speaking, the tree 

 should speak for itself : they should be worked as high as 

 you want the head to be ; and if the plants be wanted as 

 bushes, the nearer the ground you work them the better. But 

 this rather belongs to the chapters on budding and grafting 

 than to this ; and the whole feature rather belongs to " The 

 Improvement of Estates " than to the management of borders. 



THE GEEEXHOUSE 



The greenhouse is always, after a pit or frame, the first 

 glass structure that anybody erects, and the only one that a 

 builder who wants a tenant in the country thinks of building 

 to go with his house. Wherever there is a glass house of any 

 kind, it is called a greenhouse : it is one remove from the 

 garden-frame, or pit; and when there is no other horticidturaJ 



