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STOCKS FOR ROSES. 



HITHERTO the Dog Rose has been used almost 

 indiscriminately for all kinds of roses for standards ; 

 nothing better is required, at least for those sorts 

 that grow vigorously; but in the culture of 

 dwarfs, a great improvement may be made by 

 using the Celine and the Rosa Manetti. The Sem- 

 pervirens Rose, Felicite Perpetue, makes also a most 

 excellent stock for dwarf roses ; also the Hybrid 

 China Rose, Descartes. These strike readily from 

 cuttings planted in November in open borders. 



In making cuttings, take one-year-old shoots 

 and cut them into lengths of one foot : the bottom 

 of the cutting should be cut close to a bud, and 

 not sloping ; the top should be cut just above a 

 bud, with a gentle slope : then carefully cut out 

 all the buds but two at the top. In planting, the 

 section of a ridge must be formed, the cutting 

 placed firmly against it, and the earth dug up to 

 it, and firmly pressed ; when finished the row of 

 cuttings should stand in the centre of a ridge 

 about eight inches high, and only one bud of the 

 cutting above the surface ; from being thus 

 moulded up no exhaustion takes place during the 

 dry frosts of winter and spring, and every cutting 

 will grow; in July or August of the following 

 season they will be fit to bud. The ridge must 

 be levelled so as to expose the main stem of the 



