132 PRACTICAL FLORICULTURE. 



plant. No plants could possibly be in better health and 

 vigor ; and the amount of rose-buds gathered from Oc- 

 tober to May, 30 weeks, averaged about 2,000 buds per 

 week. At New York rates, which are very low say 86 

 per 100 this would give about $3,600 for the crop. The 

 varieties grown I will name in the order of their value 

 here: Safrano (orange yellow), Isabella Sprunt (canary 

 yellow), Son Silene (carmine purple), and Bella (white). 

 These are all Tea-roses, and the varieties most valued for 

 forcing ; Son Silene is the favorite, and is largely grown 

 about Boston. One florist there sent last New Year's 

 Day, 1872, to the bouquet-makers of New York 1,200, 

 for which he received $300, or $25 per 100. This variety, 

 from its delicious odor and rare and bright shade of color, 

 is generally of twice the value of any other; but against 

 this advantage is the fact that it is less prolific of bloom, 

 scarcely yielding half the number of flowers in a given 

 space as any of the others named. The method of sum- 

 mer preparation for forcing is to secure good healthy 

 young plants that have been propagated in March or 

 April ; these, when first taken from the cutting-bench, 

 are placed in 2 or 3-inch pots ; if rooted in March, they 

 will have filled the small pots with roots by the middle of 

 April ; if in April, by middle of May. In either case 

 they should be shifted into larger pots as soon as the ball 

 of soil has been filled with white roots ; if left too long 

 unshifted, the roots become brown in color, and of a hard, 

 woody nature ; if in this condition they become checked 

 in growth, they never afterward make so fine plants. Of 

 course, until the middle of May, these shiftings of the 

 young plants must be done under glass, but after that 

 time they should be placed in beds of convenient width, 

 say 4 or 5 feet, in some free and airy situation. When 

 first shifted from a smaller to .a larger pot, the plants 

 should be placed close together, the rims of the pots 

 touching; but as they begin to grow freely the pots 



