SOWING ROSE SEED 



THE pods or hips of Roses which it is hoped to multiply 

 by means of seed should be left on the plants until they 

 are about to drop. They should then be picked with a 

 small piece of stalk attached to each and the ends of the 

 stalks should be inserted in sand which must be kept 

 damp until the following November or December, when 

 the seed is to be sown. The most favourable conditions 

 for sowing Rose-seed are afforded by a greenhouse with 

 a temperature that does not fall below 50 degrees at 

 night. Mr Easlea advises that in order to prevent the 

 soil from ever becoming dry a small 6o-pot should be 

 placed inside a ^S-pot. Bring the two rims level by 

 means of crocks beneath the smaller pot, and fill up the 

 intervening space with old peat broken up into small 

 particles. Leave an indentation of about half an inch 

 so that water can be poured on to the peat without 

 wetting the soil. The small 6o-pot should now be 

 covered at the bottom with about one-fourth its height 

 of clean broken crocks, and filled to the top with a com- 

 post of loam, leaf soil about a year old and well rotted, 

 and silver sand, in the proportion of about one part each 

 of the two first and half a part of the sand. This mixture 

 should all be passed through a very fine sieve, allowed 

 to stand for a while to air, and the pots should then be 

 filled with it, the soil being fairly firmly pressed down 

 with the fingers. Only three seeds should be sown in 

 each pot, and as one pod will often contain as many as 

 thirty seeds, a good supply both of pots and soil will be 

 needed. Now break the pods with a hammer and take 



