126 PEACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



middle of December) is that best suited for the latitude of 

 New York ; sections to the north or south must be varied 

 accordingly. Perhaps the best rule that can be given is, 

 to delay the operation until the ground can no longer be 

 plowed or dug with the spade. The covering of sod may be 

 removed as soon as vegetation fairly starts in spring for 

 this section, say the middle of April and the plants raised 

 to the upright position and closely pruned. It will be un- 

 derstood that in the process of bending down, the roots 

 are only disturbed slightly on the side that has been ex- 

 cavated ; consequently they have nearly the full vigor of 

 undisturbed roots, and the plants will grow in a way that 

 will amply repay the little labor bestowed upon them. Ev- 

 ery plant thus saved over has a value four-fold that of any 

 thing which can be planted in spring, for the obvious reason 

 that it has not had its roots disturbed by removal. This 

 plan is a great improvement on that sometimes practised 

 of digging them up and burying them in the fall, to be 

 unearthed and again replanted in spring, for this cannot 

 be done without mutilation of the root, and consequently 

 diminished growth the next season. Plants of different 

 lands vary much in their ability to recuperate after plant- 

 ing, and few suffer more than the Rose ; hence the necessity 

 of practising the method recommended, in preference to 

 that of digging them up. But a still worse plan is, for 

 amateurs in gardening to lift their Rose plants and pot 

 them in fall, and attempt to keep them in the house or 

 cellar in winter ; in nine cases out of ten they never live 

 till spring, and if they do, only linger out a miserable and 

 diseased existence. Roses are often expensive, and always 

 valued plants, and we can well imagine how natural it is 

 on the approach of cold weather to lift and pot them, and 

 place them in the window of a warm sitting-room or 

 parlor ; but this kindness is killing to them, for they are 

 not a kind of plant that desires heat at this season, or in 

 this condition of their growth. It is still more delusive to 



