I20 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



soft water, with pumps, syringes, and gutta-percha 

 tubes. 



I must not finish my harangue on arrange- 

 ment until I have answered a question, often 

 asked : ** Where the space devoted to Roses is 

 too Hmited for the diversity of forms in which the 

 Rose may be grown, wJiat form do yon consider 

 the best?'' There can be no debate, nor doubt, in 

 replying : *' The most attractive, abundant, and 

 abiding system upon which you can grow Roses, 

 is to plant them in beds (remembering all I have 

 said about soil and situation), upon their own 

 roots, or budded upon dwarf stocks (I will tell you 

 which is best by-and-by), and then to treat them 

 thus : Plant in November, and, in the following 

 summer, promote all possible growth. In the en- 

 suing spring, the long, strong shoots, only 

 shortened 4 or 5 inches (all weakly produce being 

 excised), must be very gently and gradually bent 

 down to the earth, and secured with thick wooden 

 hooks, cut from the trees and hedge- rows, two or 

 three to each lateral branch. These branches will 

 not only flower early and late, but, if well treated, 

 will make robust zvood in the summer and autumn, 

 which (the older branches being removed) will be 

 pegged down in the following spring ; and so we 

 shall have annually a continuous renovation. It 



