ROSE GROWING IN WINTER. 157 



benches. We believe that it really makes but little 

 difference, as we find them grown with nearly equal suc- 

 cess by both methods where drainage is perfect, although 

 the method mainly in use in the vicinity of New York 

 (where Eoses are at present better grown than in any 

 other section of the country), is the raised bench system. 

 There is no doubt, however, that the raised bench plau 

 is much more expensive, as it is found (to have the best 

 results), that the plants must be renewed each year ; that 

 is, that the young plants that have been propagated in 

 January and grown on in pots and planted out in June or 

 July, to produce flowers during the fall, winter, and spring 

 months, must be thrown away in May or June and new 

 beds formed with fresh soil, replanted again as before with 

 young plants, and so on each season ; occasionally crops are 

 carried over for two or three years on the raised benches, 

 but rarely with as good results. The small quantity of soil 

 gets exhausted, and, besides, there is a greater chance for 

 injury from the rose bug the sscond season on raised 

 benches, which, however, is not so much the case when 

 planted in solid benches, as in that case the roots get 

 stronger and deeper. It is my impression that even Tea 

 Roses will yet be mainly grown in solid benches. There 

 are many instances of marked success by this plan. One 

 of my near neighbors has had a fixed roof greenhouse 

 eighteen by seventy feet, heated by a flue, planted over 

 twenty years ago with Tea Roses, that is yet in the high- 

 est condition of health and vigor, giving abundance of 

 grand buds throughout the entire season. They were 

 planted originally one foot apart, but have been cut out 

 so that they stand three feet apart and are now bushes 

 six feet high. No pruning is done except to shorten the 

 shoots when they get against the glass, and to thin out 

 the weak shoots. The most approved greenhouses used 

 for Rose growing in winter are about twenty feet wide, 

 and are what is known as three-quarter span (see 



