98 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



be of no avail if they were placed at once iu too much heat ; there 

 would be plenty of foliage and red spider, but few roses. He 

 would take up in September, place in a half shady situation, and 

 have them judicioush- watered, and then the foliage would assist 

 the growth of roots, Roses seldom lose their foliage until the last 

 of October, and we occasionally see a flower in November, and 

 when managed in this way the plants have two months to grow. 

 To be forced successfully there must be a cessation of growth and 

 a ripeness of the wood. As the nights become cool the loaves 

 turn yellow and the wood ripens gradually. The means of ripen- 

 ing are withholding heat and water. It would be foolish to leave 

 the plants in the ground until a crow-bar was required to dig them 

 up. You might as well attempt to force a crop of grapes by rais- 

 ing the temperature at once to 80°, as a crop of roses. 



The Chairman said that the foliage, if sustained by showering 

 and keeping the plant close, certainly did encourage root action. 

 But the question to be decided was whether it was desirable to 

 submit the plant to the action of frost. Strawberries should be 

 exposed to frost before forcing, so as to cause vegetation to cease. 

 Mr. Hovey thought there was no necessity for exposing roses to 

 frost. It might not injure them, but it would not do them any 

 good. He would not subject even strawberry plants to frost. In 

 California, whei'e they never see frost at all — certainly nothing 

 more than white frost — the}^ have abundant crops of strawberries, 

 pears, and all other fruits. 



John B. Moore did not believe that hardy roses could be forced 

 with the best success when planted in the ground in summer and 

 taken up in autumn, but would keep them in the pots. He had 

 exposed his to frost severe enough to burst some of the pots, and 

 now had plants with thirty buds on each. Thej^ were placed in a 

 cold frame and the pots covered with leaves to the depth of six 

 inches, and remained there until quite cool weather. Neither did 

 he believe that they needed a separate house, for he had grown 

 them in the same room with smilax, tea roses, pelargoniums, etc. 

 They could be grown as Mr. Hovey and Mr. Atkinson had stated. 

 Mr. Comley grew his in pots, and the tops had all been exposed to 

 frost. While he did not believe that freezing the soil in the pot 

 would do any good, in his own case it had certainly not done any 

 harm. 



Mr. Atkinson said that Mr. Nelson, the neighbor of whom he 



