92 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Essajr, the Improvement and Ornamentation of Suburban and 

 Country Roads. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



Satukday, March 10, 1877. 



The chair was occupied by W. C. Strong, Chairman of the Com- 

 mittee on Publication and Discussion, who remarked that the 

 Hybrid Perpetual Roses exhibited by John B. Moore were the finest 

 ever seen here, and before taking up the topic assigned for discus- 

 sion, called on Mr. Moore for information as to their culture. 



Mr. Moore said that a great part of whatever credit was due for 

 the roses belonged to his son, but that they had not yet succeeded 

 in growing them up to their ideas of perfection. They were grown 

 in pots during the summer, and after the wood was ripened were 

 placed in the house. This was done about the middle of December, 

 previous to which time the tops, and sometimes the soil in the pots, 

 were frozen. He endeavored to prevent rather than to destroy in- 

 sects, and to this end smoked the plants once a week, whether any 

 insects were visible or not. The only insects he had had besides 

 the green fly, were a few green worms. The plants exhibited were 

 potted on last spring and were bloomed in the same pots that they 

 were in last summer. He shifted once a j^ear ; the largest plants 

 were imported two years ago. The pots were plunged two-thirds 

 of their depth in coal ashes, while out doors, and about three feet 

 apart in the full sunlight. Mr. Moore thought it very important to 

 plunge them a sufficient distance apart to give plenty of air between. 

 They were watered once a day, or twice if they needed it, from the 

 hydrant, with considerable force. When the weather became so 

 cold that there was danger of bursting the pots, the space between 

 was filled with leaves. When the plants were first placed in the 

 house the temperature was kept quite low, but afterwards they had 

 more warmth. They were grown in a low house, and there also 

 were watered from a hydrant with a hundred feet head, though the 

 full force was not used. He had been cutting flowers for more than 

 a month. He did not think it made much difference whether the 

 tops were frozen or not, but thought it did some good. The main 

 thing is to ripen the wood. 



