HOW TO SHOW THE ROSE. 255 



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small finely-pointed ditto, with which you may 

 sometimes remove the decayed edge from a petal, 

 and a piece of narrow ivory rounded at the end, 

 such as ladies use for a knitting-mesh, and which, 

 very carefully and delicately handled, may help 

 you now and then to assist the opening Rose, or 

 to reduce irregularities of growth to a more 

 natural, and therefore graceful, combination ; add 

 a small hamper of additional moss, and the dress- 

 ing-room is ready for the royal toilet. 



WJien should we cut our Roses ? The nur- 

 seryman who exhibits 144 Roses in one collec- 

 tion — that is, 3 specimens of 48 varieties — and 

 sometimes simultaneously a collection of 72 dis- 

 tinct blooms, conveying them great distances, is 

 obliged to cut on the day preceding the shows, 

 and having acres of young trees to select from, 

 can generally find Roses of such calibre as will in- 

 sure to him a continuance of perfect beauty for 

 the next four-and-twenty hours ; but I strongly 

 advise the amateur, who has no such wealth of 

 material, and must make the most of his limited 

 means, to cut his Roses, whenever he has the op- 

 tion — that is, the time — upon the morning of the 

 show. If the weather is broken, and clouds with- 

 out and barometer within warn you of impending 

 rain, then gather ye Roses while ye may, in the 



