114 THE SUMMER ROSE GARDEN. 



this may be done with young shoots of the current 

 season from the forcing-house; they must be 

 mature ; as a rule, take only bloom shoots that 

 have just shed their flowers these are always ripe. 

 To those who love roses, I know no gardening 

 operation of more interest than that of grafting 

 roses in pots in winter ; blooming plants of the 

 perpetual roses are made so quickly, and they are 

 so constantly under observation; but for this 

 a small forcing-house is of course necessary: a 

 house twelve feet by eight feet, with an eighteen- 

 inch Arnott's stove, will do all that is necessary ; 

 and the expense of a structure of these dimensions 

 is very moderate. What can be done in the way of 

 propagation in so small a house with method is 

 quite astonishing ; a hot-bed frame will give the 

 same results, but the plants cannot be viewed in 

 bad weather with equal facility; that interest 

 attached to watching closely every shoot as it 

 pushes forth to bud and bloom in all its gay attire 

 is lost. To the mind happily constituted this is a 

 calm and untiring pleasure; the bud breaking 

 through its brown wintry covering into verdant 

 leaves, replete with the delicate tints so peculiar 

 to early spring, and unchecked by cold and 

 withering blasts, makes us feel vernal pleasures, 

 even in January ; and then the peeping flower- 

 buds perhaps of some rare and as yet unseen 

 variety, add to these still calm pleasures, felt only 

 by those who really love plants and flowers, and 

 all the lovely creations of nature. 



