174 PKACTICAL GARDENING. 



thougli if the conservatory be not a warm one, roses taken 

 from the forcing-house will be fonncl as tender as exotics. 

 If, therefore, the conservatory be really a cold one, let the 

 roses be removed first to the greenhouse as an intermediate 

 seasoning. By removing them from the forcing-honse before 

 the buds actually open into bloom, they will last much better, 

 and suffer less than they would if removed in full flower. 



We have here only mentioned or referred to the leading 

 summer and hybrid roses ; but many of the China kind may 

 be kept in bloom pretty well all the year without any forcing. 

 We have been more particular about roses, because there is 

 scarcely a shrub, or flower, or plant, that will not do without 

 any trouble beyond removing from the pots into the green- 

 house at the proper time, and thence into the same house 

 that roses are forced in. 



The forcing of flowers and shrubs may begin in September, 

 because the frosts in that month do mischief if anything at 

 all tender is left out of doors. Therefore, the preparation by 

 getting everything into frames in the early part of September 

 is necessary, and some of each or all the sorts may be re- 

 moved once a fortnight, according to the number wanted, and 

 these will keep up a succession of flowers, as far as flowers 

 and shrubs of the ordinary kind are concerned ; but there is 

 a great source of flowers among bulbs, which will of them- 

 selves keep up a bloom all the winter, or nearly so, beginning 

 with the scillas, snowdrops, early tulips, hyacinths, and con- 

 tinuing with the iris, narcissus, jonquils, amaryllis, and 

 liliums. Many others may be worth cultivating too, but all 

 these will force. The whole of these may be potted as soon 

 as the bulbs and tubers can be got into good condition ; and 

 the whole of them may be potted and put into the dark in 

 August, in a shady place where coolness is an object, and in 

 all these cases the soil above the crown of the bulbs should 

 be exactly as thick as the height of the bulb : say, a tulip 

 two inches high as it stands on a flat place, let the soil be 

 two inches higher than the top part of it ; the scilla is half 

 an inch high on a flat place, let there be half an inch of soil 

 above the top point of it. There can be no mistake about 

 them if this be attended to. Let the soil be half light good 

 loam, friable and clean, and haK cow-dung rotted into mould. 

 In tliis soil everything will grow in the first style and condi- 

 tion. When these have been a month in the dark, — a dark 



