266 A BOOK ABOUT ROSES. 



advise the amateur with a good courage to plant 

 and bud those Tea Roses which are mentioned on 

 the list for exhibition. They survive nine winters 

 out of ten, here in the midland counties;* and 

 although the standards will not bloom early in 

 their first season, they will do so in the autumn^ 

 and in the summer following will be in time for 

 the shows. These Tea Rose-trees should not be 

 pruned before April, and then sparingly. 



Set up your Roses boldly, with the tubes well 

 above the moss, and keep a uniform height. Most 

 of the show varieties will hold themselves erect 

 and upright, but some are of drooping habit, and 

 their spinal weakness requires the support either of 

 a thin slip of wood or twig secured with wire or 

 thread to the stalk, or of moss pressed firmly 

 round them after they have been placed in the 

 tube. Turn your Rose slowly round before you 

 finally fix it, so that you may present it in its most 

 attractive phase to the censor. I have seen Roses 

 looking anywhere but at the judge, as though 

 they had no hopes of mercy. 



Do not be induced to admit a Rose only because 

 it is new, or because.it has some one point of excel- 



* Budded close to the ground on the Brier they are safe always. 

 The cruel winter of 1879-80, which killed nearly all my standard Rose- 

 trees, has only bereft me of half-a-dozen Teas. The rest, well protected 

 with long manure from November to March, are now (July, 1880) 

 blooming abundantly. 



