128 PRACTICAL FLOEICTTLTTEE. 



tion to the size of the plants. The potting is done rather 

 firmer than in most plants, the Rose preferring a stiff soil. 

 When potted, they are freely watered ; shaded, if sunny, 

 and kept close for 8 or 10 days. Xow comes the most 

 important point, the place in which they are to be kept 

 during winter. This must be where they will not be 

 excited into growth; an ordinary green-house tempera- 

 ture, suited for Geraniums or Fuchsias, would be destruc- 

 tive to Roses in their dormant state, when they are with- 

 out "working roots." If kept in a green-house at all, its 

 temperature should never exceed 40 at night, with fire- 

 heat, and if it falls down to 32, now and then, it will do 

 no harm. But this kind of temperature can be best ob- 

 tained in a cold pit or frame, where there is no flue or 

 pipes, or other means of heating. These pits should be 

 sunk from 18 inches to 2 feet below the level of the 

 ground, in some sheltered spot, facing south, and, above 

 all, so situated that no water will stand in the bottom of 

 the pit ; if not naturally dry, it must be made so by 

 thorough draining. The Roses placed in the pit should 

 be plunged to the rim of the pots in tan bark, sawdust, 

 coal ashes, or some such material. Air should be given 

 at all times when the weather will permit, and the sashes 

 covered sufficiently at night to prevent the plants being 

 frozen much ; a slight frost may not injure, but they will 

 be safer and better if never frozen at all. In severe snow- 

 storms, the plants being in a dormant state, there is no 

 occasion to uncover for two or three weeks, unless to 

 take precautions against the inroads of mice or rats, 

 which are often destructive. We allow the Roses, when 

 placed in frames, to remain in them until the middle of 

 February, by which time they have formed young root- 

 lets, and will then stand the higher temperature of the 

 green-house, to which they are then brought to get them 

 in shape to force into bloom, so as *.<> be in salable con- 

 dition in April and May. 



