17 S General Notices. 



and also over the tops of the bulbs, the same as is done with tulips. It will 

 also be necessary to have a covering for the bed, so that the plants when in 

 flower may be protected from heavy rains and cold cutting winds ; and also, 

 to protect the late-flowering ones, it will be proper to proportion the distance 

 to the size that the plants grow to when planting ; for some of the species 

 will require a foot in the row, and a foot between the rows, and some of 

 them more. As soon as the plants are all done flowering, it will be neces- 

 sary to take them up, and throw out the soil that is in the bed, that it may 

 get the benefit of the air and rain, so as to sweeten it, and prepare it 

 again for the following season ; and, when filling it in, it should have some 

 more manure put at the bottom of the bed, and also some fresh compost 

 should be added. When the bulbs are taken up, they should be put into a 

 cool and dry place, and covered over with dry sphagnum, or bog moss, as 

 that will keep them fresh and healthy. The planting should again take 

 place in January, as before ; and so on with them every year. It will be 

 necessary to take away all the small bulbs from the flowering ones before 

 planting ; and, by following this plan, I am confident that a most beautiful 

 show of flowers will begot. I should have mentioned, that abed should 

 be formed for the young bulbs, to get them on to a flowering state, so that 

 they may be ready to be put in, if any of the flowering bulbs should die ; 

 and also to forward any of those that are rare. They should not be taken 

 up till they are in a flowering state : they should then be treated the same 

 as those in the flowering bed are. — [Gard. Journ. 1848, p. 23.) 



Roses for Winter Decoration. — The tribe of roses aflbrds a variety of plants 

 which may be had in bloom all the year round, if a sufiicient stock of them 

 is obtained. I would recommend that all roses intended for forcing 

 should be grown upon their own roots, especially the Bourbons, Chinese, 

 and Tea-scented varieties; for this reason, that they throw up strong shoots, 

 and bring upon these shoots large clusters of flowers. These tribes furnish 

 the best kinds to force in the early part of the season. The autumnal roses 

 in the open garden are over towards the end of November ; the earliest for- 

 cing ones may be had to succeed them, and a succession may be kept up until 

 the roses in the open garden again succeed the forced ones. 



The system I have adopted to obtain this succession of flowers is as fol- 

 lows : — I obtain a quantity of strong healthy young plants, of the tribes 

 Bourbon, Chinese, and Tea-scented. I pot them early in the spring, giving 

 them tolerably good-size pots; and as the season advances, they begin to put 

 forth their bloom buds, which I keep constantly picked off until towards the 

 autumn. This induces them to throw up strong shoots, and likewise strength- 

 ens the plants. When the frosts begin to set in, I remove them into a cold 

 pit, and take them out for forcing as 1 require them ; always choosing first 

 those that are likely to come into bloom the soonest. By this means I keep 

 up a succession of these tribes of roses until I get the Moss, Provence, Per- 

 petual, and Hybrid Perpetual varieties into bloom ; these latter tribes are 

 much more difficult to force early in the winter than those before mentioned. 

 1 treat these similarly to the Chinese during the summer ; they are, of 

 course, cut back in the autumn, and kept dry until introduced into the for- 



